The Bermuda Monetary Authority made two new appointments last week as part of its ongoing programme to strengthen regulation and supervision of the Island's financial services sector.

Mr. Jerome Johnson has been appointed Assistant Manager of Authorisation and Compliance and Ms Tanya Esdaille has been appointed Supervisor of Policy Research and Statistics.

Both appointees will work on the enforcement side of regulation, ensuring that companies comply with the laws set out for carrying on their businesses. They will be dealing with both banks and investment companies.

Strengthening regulation of the finance sector has been on the BMA's agenda for some time, even before the KPMG review of regulation was conducted. Last year's throne speech in October announced three amendments to existing legislation -- The Investment Business Act; The BMA Regulations Act; The Trust Companies Act -- which clearly demonstrate a predisposition to bring Bermuda's regulation in line with internationally accepted standards.

The previous year's legislative session also saw amendments to both the banking and investment business Acts. All of these changes are very much in line with KPMG proposals, which doubtless prompted the following comments in the report.

"In our view the BMA is a well run regulator with a strong commitment to achieving international standards.

"In general we consider the current regulatory structure, particularly following the introduction of legislation to regulate securities/investment business, to be in accordance with international standards.'' In particular the KPMG report said of banking: "Bermuda operates a regulatory regime that complies with all significant elements of the Basel Core Principles. This compliance was enhanced by the new Banking and Deposit Company Act which provides a modern regulatory framework.'' Of investment business it said: "The introduction of a regulatory regime for investments and securities is positive evidence of Bermuda's commitment to achieve full compliance with international standards.'' Mr. Munro Sutherland, general manager of the BMA, said Bermuda had been at the forefront of offshore regulation for many years and the BMA was progressing in implementation of the recent legislation. This follows extensive consultation between government and the industry at the end of last year.

He also said the BMA was well advanced in preparing consultative papers for the industry on changes to trusts and investment business legislation. He anticipates these will go to the industry early in February, with a third consultative document on collective investment business to follow shortly.

The Government has sent its response to the KPMG review of regulation, but the contents will not be made public until next month.

two pics to go with - captions ; -Jerome Johnson - Assistant Manager of Authorisation and Compliance at the BMA -Tanya Esdaille -Supervisor of Policy Research and Statistics at the BMA.

Tanya Esdaille -- Supervisor of Policy Research and Statistics at the BMA Jerome Johnson -- Assistant Manager of Authorisation and Compliance at the BMA BUSINESS BUC