The territory’s largest lender, Butterfield Bank, posted a loan-to-deposit ratio of 39% last year.

Bermuda has lost out to competing jurisdictions in terms of inward investment in recent years, but is now looking to rebuild its appeal by attracting Islamic investment. 

São Paulo may have retained its position as the leading financial centre in Latin America with regards to financial services activity, but the most impressive deal was pulled off in Mexico.

Bermuda’s highly successful model as an offshore financial centre has inspired its share of imitators, but the banking sector is working hard to keep its edge, Philip Alexander reports from Hamilton.

Since becoming president of the Inter-American Development Bank in October 2005, Luis Alberto Moreno has appointed new managers, updated the bank’s lending policies and restructured the institution. He talks to Jane Monahan.

The practice of companies establishing subsidiaries to insure their own risks directly without accessing the commercial insurance market dates back more than a century. However, the captive insurance industry began to take off in the 1960s, and Bermuda set itself up as the original home for the offshore segment.

A pragmatic commercial approach and sensible regulation have contributed to the Bermuda Stock Exchange’s development and global success.

Bermuda is discussing whether to sever ties with the UK, with opinion sharply polarised. Mairi Mallon assesses the implications for the financial sector.

Bermuda is relaxing its rules on foreign ownership of banks, witnessed by HSBC’s recent acquisition of Bank of Bermuda. Mairi Mallon reports on changing times.
Walking into one of the two main banks in Bermuda is like going back in time to England in the 1970s. The doorman knows many customers by name and long queues form every Friday as customers deposit their weekly pay cheques.