The Bank of Bermuda is cutting 14 jobs as it strives to make efficiencies in the testing economic conditions.

Ten of the posts will go in the bank's Securities Services division and another four will be axed in the Insurance department, the bank said yesterday.

In a statement released this afternoon, the bank said one of its major insurance clients had decided to go into run-off — that is, to stop writing new business — prompting the need for cuts in the Insurance division.

The statement added: "In addition, the tumultuous state of the hedge fund industry has resulted in lower transaction volumes and the need to assess our client service capacity requirements. As a result we are currently reducing the number of roles in our Securities Services business by 10."

Last month, the bank, which is owned by global giant HSBC, announced a 21 percent rise in net profit for 2008 to $348 million.

Last year, the bank's Insurance department expanded took ownership and management of the insurance captive management group and also launched "banc-assurance" - retail insurance products aimed at its bank customers - in conjunction with local insurer BF&M Ltd.

Bank of Bermuda chief executive officer Philip Butterfield said: "2009 will continue to present challenges to the financial services sector. Given the current economic environment we are evaluating our business on an ongoing basis and will reduce our operating expenses to gain efficiencies.

"This will result in a number of positions being made redundant. However, we will make every effort to keep the number of redundancies to a minimum through a focused effort to redeploy impacted employees.

"We have had success with this policy in the past and will continue to ensure that those impacted are prioritised for any vacancies within the organisation."

The announcement marks the latest in a string of job cuts across the Island's financial services industry, which has been hit hard by the global economic downturn.

JOB LOSS TALLY

XL Capital 87

Fairmont Hotels 50

Citigroup 30 - 40 *

MEF Restaurants 30

Butterfield Fulcrum Gp 30

Bank of Bermuda 14

Swiss Re 5

Ernst & Young 7 - 20*

Fidelity International 8

Gosling's 4

Crisson Jewellers 3

Bee's Knees 2

*Estimated number from sources - company did not officially disclose

(Job losses announced since last August)