Fairmont Southampton Princess from April 29 to May 2.

This is jointly run by the International Bar Association, the world's largest international organisation of lawyers, and the Investment Company Institute, the national association of the US investment company industry. Peter Rodger, senior vice president of the Bank of Butterfield, is a member of the organising committee.

The conference kicks off on Monday morning with a session on Mutual Funds in the International Pension Market -- Opportunities for the Global Manager, which looks at the use of mutual funds as funding vehicles for pension plans.

The next session, entitled Fund Governance Comes of Age, explores comparative developments in different jurisdictions and initiatives from world organisations such as the OECD and IOSCO.

The final session for Monday looks at one of the most significant recent developments in the fund industry -- Exchange Traded Funds.

Tuesday and Wednesday mornings each begin with breakfast discussion groups at 7.30 a.m., covering topics which include personalised portfolios, performance advertising, money laundering compliance, custodial responsibility and liability, impact of global stock exchanges on the mutual fund industry, the need for international accounting standards and others.

The first main session on Tuesday, Tax Developments, will provide an update on relevant tax developments. The panel will explore tax harmonisation in Europe, reporting after-tax performance, deciding whether to create a roll-up fund and the growing importance of tax efficient portfolio strategies.

This will be followed by a regional focus, this year on India, looking at both investing and marketing in that country. Then after an afternoon break there is the conference main cocktail party and dinner.

The final session, on Wednesday morning, deals with Promotion of Funds and Dealing on the Internet -- a Comparative Analysis of Risks and Rewards. In this the panelists will examine the issues of managing risk and providing security, servicing cross border clients and `know your customer' requirements. The conference ends at 10.30 that morning.

Another conference coming up at the Fairmont Southampton Princess is IBC's fourth annual wealth management event, the International Life and Annuities Forum, from June 25 to 27.

The full agenda is not yet available, but it is recognised as a foremost meeting place for international life and annuities executives and professionals. The conference focuses on the global insurance market, exploring product opportunities, marketing strategies and the latest legal and tax trends for industry providers, practitioners and clients.

One past delegate to this conference, Sarah Cook of Bermuda Life Insurance, said, "The opportunity to network with the professionals currently in this field was invaluable.'' A third conference coming up that will be of interest to some in the Island's finance industry is Standard and Poor's annual financial services ratings conference, entitled Using Technology to Competitive Advantage. This will be held in Henderson, Nevada from March 18 to March 20.

Presenting companies at the conference include Renaissance Reinsurance, AXA Group, Microsoft, Credit Suisse Group, Allstate Insurance and the Charles Schwab Corp.

The topics covered in the sessions will be: Using Technology to Competitive Advantage in Financial Services; How Technology Competitively Differentiates Financial Services Companies; Evaluating Insurers Strategies, Ratings Outlook and Key Analytic Issues for 2001; Using Technology to Redefine a Business; Benchmark Ratios and Other Key Measurements; the Direction of e-commerce in the Financial Services Industry; Alternate Risk Solutions.

BUSINESS BUC