approved a joint venture between the Bank of Bermuda and US-based First Ecom.com.

The news came yesterday with the announcement by the two businesses of the formation of First Ecommerce Data Services Limited (FEDS).

Feds is a 50/50 joint venture between the Bank of Bermuda and First Ecom.com, a global provider of electronic payment processing solutions.

But Mr. Cox's decision to relax the long observed rule that local companies must have 60 percent local ownership, is certain to be taken as a sign that he will very soon completely open up the law.

Indeed Mr. Cox's top economic advisor, Andrew Brimmer, in a recent interview said Mr Cox's decision should be made public by the end of October, if not sooner.

A report in Businesswire said that FEDS applied for an exemption from this rule to the Ministry of Finance and on August 21, 2000 was granted a licence under section 114B of the Companies Act, 1981 of Bermuda.

FEDS was created by First Ecom and Bank of Bermuda as an independent third-party payment processor licensed by Visa and MasterCard to provide banks and their merchants with the unique FEDS processing solution.

This solution includes authorisation, electronic data transmission for settlement, full transaction reporting, as well as a wide range of new services for researching, retrieving, and archiving the data associated with the transactions processed on behalf of the banks and their merchants.

"We are very excited that FEDS has finally obtained the required regulatory approval and can be equally owned by Bank of Bermuda and First Ecom while being domiciled in Bermuda,'' Harold Hutton, First Ecom President and CEO told Businesswire.

E-commerce venture approved "Now that this approval has been granted and all legal requirements have been finalised, we can focus more closely on rolling out the FEDS solution to banks and their merchants worldwide.'' "The finalisation of the FEDS joint venture further fulfils our commitment with First Ecom to provide banks with a reliable, secure outsourced payment processing solution,'' said Alan Richardson, Executive Vice President, Retail Clients for the Bank of Bermuda Ltd.

"Together we are supplying banks with an available alternative to building their e-payment systems in-house.''