Mr. Eldon Trimingham, Chairman, and Mr. Henry Smith, President and CEO, had the following statement:
"We are obviously very pleased that the Minister has decided to grant the Bank a licence exempting it from Bermuda's 60/40 ownership laws. This will enable us to compete on an equal footing with other global financial institutions, all of which have unrestricted access to capital, and to continue to share with Bermudians the opportunities and financial rewards that go hand-in-hand with a successful global operation.
"We understand and share the Minister's desire to ensure that Bermuda's interests are protected in this process. To this end, we endorse the agreed provisions attached to Bank of Bermuda's licence. Indeed, they are consistent with our intent to remain very much a Bermudian institution.
"We are now able to start the process of filing the necessary documents with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in preparation for our U.S. listing. We will also be arranging a Special General Meeting of our shareholders in the near future to obtain their approval for bye-law changes consistent with the licence and its provisions. We expect the preparations for a U.S. listing to take several months. Our goal remains to list our shares in the United States at the earliest appropriate opportunity and we will keep our shareholders and the Bermuda community fully informed of our progress.
"We would also like to express our appreciation to the Minister and his technical staff, whose efforts have produced a solution that works well for both the Bank and Bermuda. We would also like to thank our own staff who have worked closely with the Ministry to develop this positive result."