Following its breach of the $6 billion profit mark this week, media reports circulated that Westpac Banking Corporation is mulling the separation of up to 6000 jobs across its operations within the next two years.

Yet in a statement made public on Wednesday, Westpac flatly denied that it is planning job reductions of such magnitude within the cited period, labelling the swirling report as grossly inaccurate.

The bank said that the speculation probably stemmed from a declaration made by Westpac chief executive Gail Kelly on Wednesday, in which she stated that the bank is planning to cut down on its staff numbers by the latter part of 2010, with additional lay offs to be implemented by the end of the following year.

Ms Kelly, however, did not specify an exact figure on the planned job separations and Westpac itself was puzzled on how the numbers came about on succeeding media reports.

Westpac said that as of September 30 of this year, the company is employing close to 39,000 full-time workers, which is an improvement of six percent when pitted against the bank's employment figures from last year.

However, Westpac group executive of people and transformation Peter Hanlon clarified that while the bank is continually upgrading its rank of employees, its overall staff size could still see considerable reductions in the coming years.

Mr Hanlon explained that this is due to Westpac's continuing efforts to reduce if not eliminate "duplication across our businesses and introducing more efficient systems and processes, all to benefit customers."