The recent falls in world stock markets is healthy, according to Capital G Investment Limited's president and CEO Joel Schaefer.

Mr. Schaefer reckons the first 10 percent correction in the market for four and a half years can only be a good thing, bringing back a level of risk that had not been there for some time.

And he believes it can be turned into an opportunity for investors to benefit instead of just being seen simply as a straight forward loss.

"A long term investor gets compensated for taking risk and the increase in risk was necessary and expected," said Mr. Schaefer.

"It was just difficult to know exactly when or what would send the markets into a decline.

"If a portfolio is properly structured with complimentary asset classes, then the impact of a sudden market drop will be less dramatic, and will be viewed as an opportunity."

Mr. Schaefer said his customers' portfolios are doing well in the face of a rapidly fluctuating market and he does not believe it will have a big impact Capital G's business.

"We are speaking with clients who have a desire to understand what the impact the decline in the market will have on their portfolio," he said.

"There has been no change in the fundamentals of the global economy, so that leads us to believe we are in a correction, and not a bear market.

"A correction, while traumatic, is not something that will have a long term impact on our business."

Likewise, he reckons that despite the recent turmoil making it harder to borrow and get money in general in the worldwide economies, there will be no such effect in Bermuda.

"This has been a credit driven decline in the markets - both stock and fixed income," he said.

"In other words, over the short term, the ability to access capital has been made more difficult and the cost to access capital has increased.

"This will make it tougher for borrowers such as private equity partnerships or sub-prime borrowers to obtain loans.

"However, there has been no such impact in Bermuda, and we believe that all qualified borrowers will continue to be able to access funding as they need it."

And Mr. Schaefer believes only those investors who put all of their resources into a risky area of the subprime market will be affected by exposure to bad credit.

He said: "This is largely a question of risk management, and normal prudence would require that an investor limit their exposure to asset class - the classic case of do not put all your eggs into one basket.

"Any investor that acted prudently should only have a limited impact on their exposure to this sector of the credit market.

"However, there are hedge funds as well as companies that specialise in this area, and clearly if this is the main focus of the business, it can have a material impact."

He added: "We look to pursue prudent lending standards from the origination of our loans, and seek to price our loans based on the individual risk of the borrower. Since the majority of our loan portfolio is mortgages based in Bermuda, and there has been no change in the underlying level of risk for new borrowers, we don't see any changes to the pricing of our lending."