The Bank of NT Butterfield yesterday announced that six employees in their Operations and Custody Departments have been made redundant, and a further 10 redundancies are scheduled to follow in August.Michael Collins, senior executive vice president, announced the job cuts at a meeting with media representatives yesterday.He explained the reason for the redundancies is threefold. Butterfield now has a common Core Banking System in place in the Cayman Islands as well as Bermuda.“It means there will be much less manual processing,” he said.The second reason is changing customer preferences, he said. “A lot of our customers bank online, and high percentage do all their banking online, so there are less manual processes.“The third is the change in Bermuda economy — it's just smaller. The gross domestic product has shrunk. Business volume — business — has dipped.” He pointed to loans, credit cards and merchant transaction processing as among the areas impacted. “They are all directly correlated to the economy contracting. It has slowed down,” he said.“This has impacted the number of positions we need in Operations and Custody; we have downsized how Operations and Custody should function in this new environment.”The restructuring means the Bank will put in place one management team for Cayman and Bermuda. He said Betsy Drummond, who is based in Cayman, is the new head of Custody for the two Islands. “It makes sense to have a single management team,” said Mr Collins.The restructuring project will put in place the senior roles, and those positions will be advertised in order that the 173 Operations and Custody employees can decide whether or not they want to apply for them. “Everybody will have an opportunity to interview,” he said. “We think we have the talent and the skill set within the area to do it.”Returning to the redundancies, which were made at various levels of the affected departments, he said:  “We feel we've treated people fairly and with respect,” but added: “We understand how difficult it is.”He explained a team meeting was held to explain to the department employees why the decision had been taken, and to describe how the restructuring project would proceed. “We had a presentation (yesterday) for the Operations and Custody departments and discussed the rationale behind it, and what is driving these changes. We went through the organisational charts and how it would be structured.“There were lots of questions and obvious concerns.”Executive vice president and group head of human resources Donna Harvey Maybury said: “It's never easy doing it.”She explained that along with their redundancy packages, which includes a severage package, six months of health insurance coverage and banking benefits, the bank has provided employment counselling as well as holding out the hope that they may be able to return to banking in the future. Ms Harvey Maybury said: “People who have been made redundant, there have been times when we have been able to bring them back, even in a temporary position.“We want to stay in touch with them, and tell them about jobs (that become available) and put them on temporary assignment lists. That's how we treat the people who are leaving the organisation.”Nonetheless, the executives involved in handling the matter for the bank described the events as difficult. “There were tears from the people who are leaving, and tears from the people who remain,” said Ms Harvey Maybury.Looking at the August job cuts, she said voluntary redundancies were a possibility.Mr Collins said: “There will be the 10 redundancies in August, and two in Cayman. Then the project will be over. At the end of August we will have a more structured, effective approach,” he said.In March the bank cut eight jobs, in corporate banking and investment services.And about 28 employees in Bermuda opted to take up the company's offer last November of early retirement.Butterfield Bank came close to collapse four years ago, but was kept afloat by a $200 million preference share issuance, guaranteed by the Government. Many were worried whether the money in their accounts was safe and whether the Island could stand the loss of an institution that had been at the heart of its financial system for most of its 150 years in business.Butterfield's share price has been climbing and Fitch has affirmed and raised its ratings in recent months.