Alan Thompson, President & Chief Executive Officer said, "We are pleased with this strong performance in the current economic environment, with sustained low interest rates in both the USA and UK and significant declines seen across all major world stock markets. Particularly noteworthy is the 14.1% year on year increase in fee income generation, reflecting significant increases achieved in our investment management and corporate services operations. We will remain focused on our core activities and vigilant in our expense control as we continue to strive to enhance shareholder value."
Richard Ferrett, Executive Vice President & Chief Financial Officer, commenting on the Bank's financial performance, stated that: "It is significant to record that the Bank again achieved a Return on Equity in excess of 20%. In addition the efficiency ratio improved to 62.8%, compared to 64.9% for the same quarter a year ago. Also particularly noteworthy is the performance of our Asset Management group of businesses in Bermuda, where net income is up year on year by 47.6% to $3.55 million. Our asset/liability management strategies have performed well, in line with expectations, with net interest income up on the previous quarter. We remain pleased with the overall performance of our in-house managed investment portfolios."
The Board has decided to maintain the quarterly dividend at 35 cents per share, payable on Friday 15 November 2002 to shareholders of record on Tuesday 5 November 2002. As a result the rolling 12-month dividend will increase from 122 cents at the same stage a year ago, and 131 cents last quarter, to 134 cents per share. At today's closing share price of $31.00 this represents a dividend yield of 4.32%.