The long-awaited report by the British Government on how Bermuda regulates its financial institutions, has been postponed.

The Ministry of Finance yesterday revealed that it received a note from the British Foreign & Commonwealth Office on Friday that the London meeting would not take place today as had been previously scheduled.

"We don't know why the meeting was postponed and have not been given a new date,'' said Donald Scott, Permanent Secretary for the Ministry of Finance.

Mr. Scott said he did not know if the report was completed and agreed that its delay may have caused the meeting's postponement.

The report, commissioned by the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office, was being carried out by the international accounting firm KPMG. Not limited to Bermuda the investigation also involved the Cayman Islands, Anguilla, the British Virgin Islands, Montserrat and the Turks and Caicos.

Mr. Scott last month had said that the Finance Ministry expected the report to be "generally positive'' in respect of Bermuda.

A delegation from the Finance Ministry was to attend today's postponed meeting together with delegations from the other jurisdictions involved in the probe and officers from the Foreign & Commonwealth Office and the British Treasury.

One of the main criteria the investigators were charged to discover was whether financial regulators in the territories are independent of Government.

The review was undertaken as part of the White Paper prepared by the UK Government entitled "Partnership for Progress'' that deals with the UK's relationship with its overseas territories.

Promised last March, the review will be jointly paid for by the six overseas territories involved in the exercise.

KMPG, which has an office in Bermuda, was chosen by a steering committee made up of UK Government officials and representatives of the islands involved.

BUSINESS BUC