rule. For several years bank chiefs have not `felt particularly successful'.

Ahmed ElAmin reports The Bank of Bermuda is in the process of forging a bill which, if approved, will exempt it from the rule requiring local companies to be 60 percent owned by Bermudians.

The proposed exemption will be a preliminary step toward the bank making a secondary listing of its shares on a US stock exchange, probably the Nasdaq, president and chief executive officer Henry Smith said yesterday.

The listing on an overseas stock exchange will allow the bank to raise more capital when needed for expansion.

"That will represent a major change for the bank -- not one taken lightly -- but we recognise that we simply cannot grow our international business without free access to liquid capital markets, and if we can't grow our international business, we can't grow at all,'' he said in a speech before the Hamilton Rotary Club at La Coquille restaurant.

Earlier in his speech Mr. Smith said the bank was in good financial shape but increasing competition overseas meant it had to change to survive.

"We have turned in record profits for several years in a row, but I think most of my colleagues would agree that we haven't felt particularly successful for the past few years,'' he said. "All of us think we should be doing a lot better, and, given the increased competition we are facing, we are worried that if we don't improve our performance pretty quickly, we could find ourselves shrinking into the future as opposed to growing.'' He said part of the problem the bank faced was the lack of balance in the performance of the group. Some of the business is growing and producing strong financial results. Other parts have lagged.

"We could turn in much better results and feel a lot better if we could get more consistent performance across the group,'' he said.

The Bank of Bermuda has 2,400 staff worldwide and 17 overseas offices.

Recently the bank announced it was withdrawing from the deposit taking and lending business at its New York subsidiary.

The New York branch would instead concentrate on its trust, custody and other non-banking, administrative services. The bank will cut about six of the 23 staff in New York.

"In fact, I strongly believe that, if the Bank of Bermuda just continues to do business as usual -- do what worked in the past -- we might not exist five years from now,'' Mr. Smith continued.

FORWARD-THINKING -- Bank of Bermuda president and chief executive officer Henry Smith (above), who spoke to Rotarians yesterday, believes more consistent performance across the group was needed to turn in much better results.

`In fact, I strongly believe that, if the Bank of Bermuda just continues to do business as usual we might not exist five years from now.' -- Henry Smith.