Bank of Bermuda is cutting 38 jobs as a result of a decision to discontinue a number of alternative investment business lines.

The Island's biggest private employer, with 1,138 staff, has announced the axe is to fall on the positions beginning in June, however it is unable at this stage to say how many of those whose jobs are to being made redundant will end up out of work as the bank said it hoped to find alternative placements for staff.

Bank employees were given the news of the job losses last week. A public announcement was made yesterday as the HSBC affiliate bank revealed some details behind the job cuts, which it said have come as a result of restructuring within the HSBC Securities Services Bermuda division.

"At this point we cannot say exactly how many staff will leave the employment of the bank. Our human resources department is actively working with staff to identify and explore other employment opportunities within HSBC Securities Services, the bank and within the HSBC group. We expect to achieve placement for the majority of staff affected," said the company in a statement.

The bank was not able to say how many of the roles and positions affected are currently filled by Bermudians and how many by guest workers.

"The redundancies are a result of our decision to discontinue certain lines of business and focus our local resources on investor services and corporate management in the Americas region," the bank explained.

"We believe this restructuring is in the best interest of our clients and the long term growth prospects of our business. Although redundancies are always a difficult decision, the growth of our business will continue to create new positions and provide new developmental opportunities."

Since the bank was acquired by HSBC group in early 2004 following a $1.3 billion offer there have been a number of job cuts. In April 2004 a total of 71 redundancies were announced, 51 of which were in Bermuda and 20 in the bank's overseas offices as a result of the amalgamation with the banking giant.

At the time of the amalgamation the Bank of Bermuda warned that as many as 250 jobs may disappear during the next three years.

In February 2005 a further 38 redundancies were announced within the bank's Bermuda Operations group. At that point the total number of job redundancies since amalgamation, according to the bank, was 80.

The number of employees stood at 1,051 at the end of February 2005, which included the hiring of 211 new staff since the HSBC deal of the previous year. As of last month the bank had 1,138 staff.

HSBC was reported to be the world's largest corporation last year in terms of assets, which stood at $1.74 trillion.