The Bermuda Monetary Authority has reported a total comprehensive loss of $3.53 million in 2023 as the organisation's headcount continues to rise with its increasing responsibilities.

The loss compares with income of $5.45 million in the previous year.

The financial details related to the island's financial services regulator are included in the organisation's 2023 annual report, which was tabled in the House of Assembly by David Burt, the Premier and Minister of Finance.

Total revenue increased by 8.8 per cent year-on-year to $86.66 million, up from $79.65 million.

The BMA said the increase is mainly due to a $3.44 million growth in revenue from contracts with licensees due to increased revenue from supervisory and licensing fees.

Revenue from fines, penalties and other income decreased by $1.82 million.

Investment income increased by $5.39 million, mainly due to increased interest from repurchase agreements and fixed-income securities.

Additionally, the BMA said, the quality of its held-to-maturity portfolio of investments remained very high, with all securities maintaining a rating of AA+ or better.

However, expenses increased by 21.54 per cent to $90.19 million, up from $74.2 million in the prior year.

The report said the increase is mainly due to the $10.09 million increase in salaries and employee benefits due to increased headcount.

The BMA said: "The organisation's headcount increased to 273 as of 31 December 2023 from 235 at year-end 2022.

"This strategic increase was critical to support the BMA’s rapidly expanding supervisory remit across numerous sectors. The organisation’s increasing need for highly skilled technical staff in the areas of financial services regulation, actuarial science, risk analytics and legal services has largely continued to drive the increase in resourcing demands."

The organisation added: "The pace of growth will continue into the coming year, with the headcount expected to increase further as staffing levels in the insurance supervisory, data science and operational support areas increase to ensure ongoing alignment with growing regulatory and operational support needs.

"This growth is driven by the organisation's pressing need for skilled technical and actuarial staff to supervise the long-term insurance sector."

The BMA said its learning and development activities during the year were largely focused on further enhancing the organisation’s leadership development programme in support of succession planning initiatives that encourage a culture of continuous learning and development.

"The importance of robust and effective coaching and mentoring resources and tools to sustain ongoing talent development remains key to the BMA’s learning and development strategy.

“In addition, the organisation’s robust curriculum of technical training and individual effectiveness offerings was further expanded to include a range of on-demand training options designed to meet the diverse needs of the BMA’s staff."

The BMA said general expenses increased by $3.91 million, mainly owing to increased losses from the retirement of property and equipment and intangibles, premises and office expenses, recruitment and repatriation and conferences, seminars, education and training.

Professional fees increased by $2.8 million, mainly because of increased legal and consultancy expenses.

These were offset by decreased circulation notes and coin expenses of $1.13 million.

The remainder of the increase in expenses, the BMA said, is a result of increases in amortisation of intangible assets ($212,000), depreciation of property and equipment ($106,000), and expected credit loss for investments and cash and cash equivalents of ($50,000).

These were offset by the decreases in ECL for accounts receivable ($40,000) and finance costs ($12,000).

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BMA Annual Report 2023.pdf