exemption from the 60:40 ownership rule deserves support.

That the Bank would receive the exemption has been certain since July when Mr.

Cox announced that the 60:40 rule would be relaxed for overseas financial services companies to compete with local companies, beginning in 2003.

The question since then has not been whether the bank would receive approval, but when. Now we know the answer.

When Mr. Cox announced the beginning of the end of 60:40, this newspaper welcomed the decision, but said a Green Paper outlining the arguments for the change and the steps needed to move from protectionism to free trade was needed.

Mr. Cox has long maintained that the reasons for not giving the Bank of Bermuda an exemption before now was because he and his party believed that a policy for all banks was needed. That was sound reasoning, and to some extent the July announcement marked a step in that direction.

Now Mr. Cox has seemingly added flesh to that announcement with the Bank permission granted on Friday. Certainly, the requirements are fairly steep and it is difficult to find fault with them.

Nonetheless, Shadow Finance Minister Grant Gibbons is also right to be surprised that Mr. Cox has made a one-off decision having previously sought a blanket policy.

The Bank of Butterfield, which is also seeking an exemption, knows it will have to meet the "high test'' already passed by the Bank of Bermuda. But it cannot know if the conditions imposed will be same.

What is not yet clear is whether some of the conditions governing control of the Bank -- such as restrictions on any shareholder being able to vote more than 40 percent of control of the bank and a requirement that the "mind and management'' of the bank be Bermudian can be enforced if a Citibank or Hongkong and Shanghai Bank was to try to gain control. Once the genie has been let out of the bottle, it will be difficult to get it back in.

Having said that, this is the right decision and will give Bermuda and the bank advantages it needs in the global economy.

It may well be that Mr. Cox, in coming to this decision, has been forced to take longer than he would have liked due to opposition from within his own caucus or party, which has historically opposed any possibility of Bermudians losing control of the Island's economic resources.

If that is the case, then Mr. Cox has skillfully navigated his way through some treacherous political shoals to come to what should prove to be the right decision.