There is no reason the Bank of Butterfield could not one day catch up with the Bank of Bermuda, the former chief executive officer of Bermuda's oldest bank said.

Calum Johnston said there was no reason that the Island's two main banks could not once again be on an equal footing.

He added that the Bank of Butterfield was in no rush to list on the Nasdaq and said it was happy for the Bank of Bermuda to be the first to try it out.

In an interview with The Royal Gazette, he said: “We were bigger than Bank of Bermuda at one time and we lost our way but there is nothing to say we can't catch up again.”

He said size was not the most important thing for a business and pointed out that the Bank of Butterfield gave good returns to its investors.”We rival them now in that our return on equity, which is what the shareholders get, is a far better return on equity than theirs.

“We are a more efficient bank, we produce better results than they do. They are bigger, but so was Enron, Enron is bigger than we are.

“I don't think that size is any kind of measurement that is serious. Now in certain businesses you have got to be big... There are certain things this bank can't do because it is not a big bank.

“But that is not to say that the people who have invested in it can't get a jolly good run for their money.”

When asked if Bank of Butterfield was going to list on the Nasdaq after last year being granted exemption from the 60/40 ruling, he said the bank was taking its time making the decision.

He said: “It's a double-edged sword, listing on Nasdaq. If you have a hiccup, you get killed. You are under huge scrutiny.”

He added that one of the main reasons for not listing was the very high cost of changing the accounts into US GAAP, an accounting standard used by Nasdaq listed companies.

And he questioned why this standard had to be the norm across the world. Mr. Johnston noted: “US GAAP is now under huge scrutiny because of Enron. Who says US GAAP is so hot? Why should we all rush to change to US GAAP?

“My feeling is that you will get convergence and get an international GAAP and we may not have to spend a fortune to get compliant with that.

“Then there is the decision do you want to list or don't you. I think at the moment we are not ready to list, I don't feel any need to list and there didn't seem any point in spending the money. It costs a lot of money to change.”

When asked if the bank had any problems with opening up to the scrutiny of the Nasdaq, its analysts and shareholders, Mr. Johnston said this was not a problem for Bank of Butterfield.

He said: “There is no problem with that, we do that any way. You will find our reporting this quarter much more full than it ever has been, we keep revealing more and more.

“It is not so much that we were hiding it before, we just didn't publish it. I don't mind opening it up to anyone who wants to look. It is just the cost of ... doing all the returns that we need constantly, and the system changes that you need to do and some of the analysis is a very expensive thing. I am happy to take that slowly, and sometimes it is better to be a slow follower.

“Let Henry (Smith, the chief executive officer of Bank of Bermuda) show us the way. He's not finding it so easy I don't think.”