Bermuda Stock Exchange CEO Greg Wojciechowski has welcomed the easing of the 60-40 rule for some listed companies as “a significant step forward in the modernisation and further development of Bermuda’s domestic capital market”.The change came into effect on Wednesday after the Senate approved the Companies Amendment Act 2012, which will allow certain publicly traded firms to apply for relief from the rule that requires a minimum 60 percent Bermudian ownership.The move will lower entry barriers for overseas investment in firms such as insurers BF&M Ltd and Argus Group Holdings Ltd, telecommunications group KeyTech Ltd and energy company Ascendant Group Ltd.Mr Wojciechowski said the move could help to provide a boost for the local economy as well.“This development underscores the Government’s recognition that a healthy and vibrant domestic capital market and a healthy and vibrant domestic economy are inextricably linked,” Mr Wojciechowski said yesterday.“Healthy markets help support capital formation for companies to allow them to grow, enhance or develop new products or services which in turn benefit consumers and through corporate growth provides employment opportunities for a country’s workforce.“Healthy markets also provide a key source of capital for smaller and medium sized companies which are the entrepreneurial engines of economic growth.”The amendment establishes a mechanism through which the transferability of a listed public company’s shares are free of restrictions and mirrors internationally accepted principles that underpin modern capital market and stock exchange operation, he added.This is a significant step forward in the modernisation and further development of Bermuda’s domestic capital market.This development underscores the Government’s recognition that a healthy and vibrant domestic capital market and a healthy and vibrant domestic economy are inextricably linked.Healthy markets help support capital formation for companies to allow them to grow, enhance or develop new products or services which in turn benefit consumers and through corporate growth provides employment opportunities for a country’s workforce.Mr Wojciechowski paid tribute to the work of the Business Development Unit (BDU), a branch of the Ministry of Business Development and Tourism.The BDU and specific task forces had engaged stakeholders and the private sector to understand the benefits and implications of these structural changes, he said, before designing a policy which had then been skilfully drafted into legislation.“The result has been an elegant solution that relies on the powers in the Companies Act and the regulatory oversight and information disclosures of designated stock exchanges to deliver a solution that further modernises the domestic capital market, retains ownership protections for companies that wish to have them and permits publicly listed and reporting companies the option and freedom to seek capital on a global scale as they see fit,” Mr Wojciechowski said.“It has been said that Bermuda punches above its weight on the world stage which is evidenced by the success the country has had in the international business arena.“This development clearly articulates that Bermuda is committed to ensuring that our local capital market mirrors this sophistication and is efficient, modern and deploys internationally accepted standards of regulatory oversight and freedom of access to capital.”Only public companies listed on the Bermuda Stock Exchange, or another designated exchange, in a “prescribed industry” will be eligible to apply for relief from the 60-40 rule. The prescribed industries listed are telecommunications, energy, insurance, hotel operations, banking and international transportation services (ship or aircraft).