New Bank of Bermuda boss Philip Butterfield wasted no time in getting down to business yesterday.

At a Press conference, that included top HSBC executives as well as two new members of the bank?s executive team, Mr. Butterfield said already announced job cuts at the bank would be made over time, and with redundancy packages in keeping with ?past practice?.

Mr. Butterfield took on the post of CEO from Henry Smith, who moves to a temporary post as executive director to oversee the bank?s integration into HSBC, after it was sold to the banking giant this week for $1.3 billion. He said he was excited at the prospect of working with new COO and CFO Andy Gent and Nigel Crow in leading this ?new era? in the bank?s history. While speaking with the media, Mr. Butterfield cut to the quick of bank employee concerns, saying he recognised that job cuts had left some on tenterhooks but no decisions had been finalised.

?We do acknowledge that there will be redundancies as a result of this amalgamation, but we are in the very early stages of building our plans to detail those redundancies. As we build our plans we will make our decisions known to our colleagues, and ours will be a gradual approach. While we regret the need for redundancies, even without this amalgamation, redundancies would have been a necessity throughout the organisation,? he said, and reiterated that some cuts could be made through natural attrition. Those who do face job losses, will get a redundancy package ?consistent with past practice?, he said.

The bank?s top executives stand to collectively make more than $11 million in cash and HSBC investments if they cut 150 staff in the first year, while retaining 70 percent of those staff defined as ?key?.

Yesterday Mr. Butterfield said the process of identifying key staff was still underway but it was a by-product of very detailed planning that had been in place for some time. And as we complete that exercise we will be communicating with the appropriate bodies ? those persons who are viewed by management as essential to our future success.?

As for re-branding, the bank name will now run along side the HSBC hexagon logo. The use of the logo was explained by Mr. Butterfield. ?It is important that we identify our connection with HSBC. Therefore our new logo uses the HSBC hexagon in place of (the Bank of Bermuda) compass. This new logo will be introduced on all bank signage, stationery and sales material and will be achieved over the next several months.?

Mr. Butterfield said that rebranding would eventually lead to customers getting new bank cards, and an upgrade of automatic teller machines and more but changes he emphasised that changes would not happen overnight.