Bermuda is a cost-effective place for fund administrators to do business, the boss of Apex Fund Services Ltd has told international financial publication Hedgeweek.Peter Hughes told the publication’s June 2012 Bermuda Special Report that Bermuda scored better as a funds centre than Cayman, which is a much larger player in the industry.Mr Hughes, as managing director of Apex, has led the firm’s devleopment from a 2003 Bermuda start-up into a company with 24 offices around the world and 270 staff, 25 of whom are based in Bermuda.Apex has an operation in Cayman, but Mr Hughes argues that Bermuda is a superior funds administration centre, partly because it has a larger and more buoyant human resources market.“Price-wise, Bermuda is very competitive these days and the cost of recruiting staff is much more favourable than in alternatives such as Cayman,” Mr Hughes told Hedgeweek.“We have a small office in Cayman, but not a fund administration licence there because the minimum capital requirement is $500,000. That does not make sense if you’re only going to have three or four people there.“In addition, the work permit fee is significantly higher in Cayman than in Bermuda. That gives it a huge competitive advantage, because margins are tight in the administration sector. In addition, Bermuda’s talent pool means you can recruit very experienced staff cost-effectively.”Hedgeweek is published by online publishing company GFM Ltd, which has 53,000 subscribers to its daily newsletter.The comments from Mr Hughes, who is a regular participant with the Business Bermuda delegations promoting the Island as an international business jursidiction at conferences around the world, challenges the oft-expressed view that Bermuda is a relatively expensive place to do business.Business Bermuda CEO Cheryl Packwood, who is also quoted in the Hedgeweek article, was keen to ram home this point. “We are very cost-effective and in fact not as expensive as certain other jurisdictions,” she said.“Government fees for funds are competitive, at a time when other jurisdictions have had to increase thweir fees in order to raise revenue and finance the enforcement of new regulations. That we are expensive is a myth that needs to be dispelled.”Useful website: www.hedgeweek.com