SBC Plc chairman Sir John Bond yesterday said he would be very surprised if the Bank of Bermuda brand disappeared following its merger with the world?s second largest bank.

In a wide-ranging interview with journalists, Sir John also dispelled fears of wider job cuts and emphasised the benefits of the merger.

Sir John?s visit to the Island followed the announcement of the Bank of Bermuda?s proposed sale last October, with shareholders voting on the deal next month.

Sir John, 61, stressed that HSBC ? with operations in 79 countries around the globe ? was no stranger to the varied demands of operating in different jurisdictions. For Bermuda, Sir John said that meant the bank?s management and board remaining in Bermudian hands.

Although headquartered in the UK, Sir John said HSBC was an international organisation with a very diverse shareholding base.

And Sir John cited concerns from some shareholders that over time the Bank of Bermuda would slowly disappear and only be known as HSBC, as an ?unfair point of view?.

?Nobody at HSBC plans right now to do anything with the Bank of Bermuda brand,? and he said that nothing would change without HSBC consulting constituents.

Sir John recognised the sale ? with this marking the first time a local bank is sold to a foreign institution ? as an emotional issue for the Island and said he could not see Bermudian constituents being in favour of foregoing the long-held Bank of Bermuda name.

Sir John said the extent of the HSBC rebranding could be the use of its trademark hexagon logo in tandem with the Bank of Bermuda name.

?What you may see is the logo tagged on, people call it the bow tie, at the bottom.?

In making acquisitions, Sir John said HSBC scours the globe and one of the things the company looks for are areas that are well regulated.

He cited Bermuda as a prime example, as well as claiming the Bank of Bermuda was a good business fit. In particular, he cited the bank?s fund administration and private banking business as key to HSBC?s interest.

?This makes both institutions stronger,? he said, of the transaction.

In previous interviews, Sir John has said that one of the things HSBC asks in an acquisition is ?why is it worth more in our hands than their hands?, and said the answer in this case was how HSBC?s technology platforms could propel the Bank of Bermuda?s growth.

?If you like, it will accelerate business opportunities.?

HSBC is no stranger to acquisitions, with it having spent some $16 billion this year alone on acquisitions around the globe ? from its relatively small buy out of most of the Brazilian assets of British rival Lloyds TSB for $815 million up to its $14.2 billion purchase of US consumer group Household International.

Meanwhile, Sir John held off questions on concerns that the $45 per share sales price was too low.

That concern has been raised by some shareholders, but Sir John said he was not the right person to ask. He said investors should refer to the opinion given by Merrill Lynch, as the professional firm hired by the Bank of Bermuda to give its fairness opinion on the sales price.

But Sir John did say that the $45 price being paid represented a premium of more than 16 percent over the closing price of the bank?s shares in the 90 days previous to the sale?s announcement.

?The price is well above where the stock was when we had our first conversation,? he said, adding that the negotiated price was fair for both sides.

Sir John also shot down speculation in the months since the sale was announced over Merrill Lynch having close ties with HSBC, with his saying that the group?s advisors on other transactions had been Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley.

Apart from a joint Internet venture with Merrill Lynch, Sir John said he did not think HSBC had had ties with the investment firm, and that he did not think they had advised them at any time.

Sir John, dapper in a pinstriped suit, with a Bermuda flag pendant at his lapel, described the purpose of his visit to the Island as putting ?a human face? on HSBC. And he said he recognised that the sale of the bank to a foreign institution was emotional.

?There are sensitive issues in the potential transaction in the eyes of Bermuda,? he said.

Sir John conceded that the level of emotion in this transaction was something not often seen, but something that could be understood.

?The feelings Bermudians have about the bank are entirely healthy,? and added that Henry Smith and others were working to demonstrate to Bermuda and Bermudians the upside of change for the 114 year old flagship Bermuda corporation.

The looming threat of hundreds of job cuts at the bank ? the largest private employer on the Island ? have left some staff with fears on their future. But Sir John said redundancies were to be limited to those already planned by the bank.

?There are no plans beyond that, by HSBC,? he said.

HSBC has come under fire, especially in the UK, for its heavy outsourcing of jobs to Asia, particularly India.

But outsourcing, a word that Sir John cited as popular with the western media, was ?the reality of what gets done around the world?.

Sir John did say that as an international organisation some tasks were, by necessity, centralised, and cited the 11 data centres the group has for its operations.

?We are an international group, if we were all self-contained there would be no point in being international.?

But Sir John squashed fears of local bank jobs going that way, predicting that Bermuda could benefit from greater opportunities with the possibility of HSBC moving business here.

?From the Bermuda perspective, we would move trust business into Bermuda,? and said outsourcing ?was not an issue here, that I am aware of?.

But Sir John said that if one was asking if the nature of employment could change, we are all having to change all of the time.

He said his opinion was the financial services sector had seen a more rapid pace of change in the last five years, than in all of his 42 years working in the sector.

With a smile he said that he had started out serving on a counter, and that many of the jobs he had held through the years were now obsolete.

?But serving on a counter is not one of those,? he added, giving his view that teller services were not likely to be phased out.

Management training opportunities were also cited as a possibility under HSBC?s global umbrella, giving Bermudians the chance to get banking experience abroad.

Sir John said that was a very real possibility and postings could be ?anywhere in the world?, and could happen before the end of the year.

As an example, he said HSBC had Brazilians working in China and Latvians in the Middle East.

COO Philip Butterfield, who is set to become CEO after the sale, added: ?We have already begun thinking about the extraordinary opportunities there may be in a global company.?

Another area of opportunity under HSBC cited by bank management since the sale was announced, was the bank?s increased ability to attract a larger share of banking business from the Island?s international business sector. Yesterday Sir John said HSBC?s much larger capital base could mean the bank would get more of that business. Sir John said HSBC, which globally has the second largest market capitalisation after Citibank, may be able to draw in more business from the Island?s well-established insurance market. Because of its larger capital base, HSBC can offer guarantees on loans that the Bank of Bermuda could not.

During his whirlwind visit ? Sir John arrived on Saturday and left yesterday afternoon ? he held a round of meetings with the Bermuda Monetary Authority, the Ministry of Finance, the Bermuda International Business Association, the Bermuda Employers Council, the Insurance Advisory Committee, the Chamber of Commerce?s Association of Bermuda International Companies and the Bermuda Stock Exchange. Sir John also met with Government Ministers at a Cabinet meeting yesterday morning, and with senior executives at the bank.

As for future trips to Bermuda, Sir John said: ?You cannot visit without wanting to come back,? adding that this visit to introduce himself to bank chairman Joseph Johnson and the rest of the board had been a necessity.

?It is people who make a company live and breathe,? but with a smile he said that as most of his business trips were to deal with problems he did not expect to be needed back in Bermuda any time soon.