ranked first out of 91 offshore funds over five years by Standard & Poor's (S&P) Micropal.

The US dollar class had an annual compound return net of all fees of 5.17 percent over the five years to the end of 1998. In 1998 the US dollar class registered a 5.4 percent return.

Bank of Butterfield senior vice president Peter Wignall attributed the performance to lower costs and a balance of safety and liquidity with a push to get a high yield.

US dollar class portfolio manager Alistair Border said the fund was able to take advantage of pricing differences between markets.

"Our mid-Atlantic position offers us an extra investment advantage, enabling us not only to purchase securities out of Europe or the US, but also to take advantage of pricing differentials that arise between those markets. Our proactive approach towards new investment products has also been a major benefit for the fund, a process in which we have worked very closely with S&P.'' Last year Bank of Butterfield won the first place award for offshore fund management from Micropal in the smaller groups category. The money market fund also has sterling, Canadian dollar and Euro classes of funds. The sterling and US dollar classes were ranked third in the three year offshore territories money market survey.