Annual Reports Competition of the Bermuda Branch of the Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators (ICSA) of Canada.

And the banking supervisors, the Bermuda Monetary Authority, stole the show in the category for local companies.

In its third year, the competition requires the submission of annual reports of individual companies in three categories: International, Local and Non-profit organisations.

The awards reception is being held tomorrow night at the Royal Bermuda Yacht Club.

ICSA Bermuda Branch vice president, Richard A. Jenkyn, said "We are finding more submissions and we believe that people are realising that it is worthwhile to have a standard to aspire to in terms of a firm's ability to present itself to existing and potential shareholders.

"There have been some very attractive annual reports presented in recent years. Some ideas have crept into the marketing and graphics departments of some of the companies. They have come up with some more imaginative ideas.

"We started with 18 competitors in 1995. It grew to 29 last year and this year we had 38.

"We added a new category this year, the Non-profit category and there were eight competing in that division. The Centre on Philanthropy has tried to encourage non-profit organisations to join the competition.'' That category was won by the Bermuda Biological Station for Research, who were followed by Bermuda Hospitals Board and the Bermuda Zoological Society.

Placings in the Local category were led by the Bermuda Monetary Authority, the Bermuda Electric Light Co. Ltd. in second place and Bermuda Home Ltd. in third place.

In the International category, EXEL Ltd. finished in first place, followed by ACE Ltd. and joint second runner-ups, IPC Holdings Ltd. and Centre Reinsurance (Bermuda) Ltd.