The Island's largest bank - the Bank of Bermuda - has announced a new programme to encourage investments from a wider cross-section of the community.

To this end the bank has lowered the entry level requirements for its All Points Funds of Funds.

The programme had previously carried an initial investment price tag of $10,000 and subsequent investments of $5,000 each. But the bar has now been lowered with $2,500 now being the initial investment required and investments of $250 each month for at a minimum, three years.

The bank added that there were also no up-front fees for getting into the investment plan and the monies to be invested are debited on a monthly basis from the client's account.

In a press statement yesterday, the bank said: "In order to broaden the appeal of investment services and products at the bank, the Investment Savings Plan has been devised for people who want to invest, but feel they do not know enough about investing want to invest, but can't afford the high initial investment costs and fees of many investment products want to regularly save and would benefit from a structured monthly debit into an investment vehicle have a specific long term goal in mind they they want to regularly invest money for."

Mark Perreault, the bank's head of personal financial services, said of the new investment savings plan: "It has been developed to make investing in the bank's professionally managed All Points Fund of Funds easy and affordable. It especially helps people who may have been put off investing due to the costs, but it is also a great product for people who want to regularly invest their savings."