Bermuda Commercial Bank's e-banking platform is still not running almost a year and a half after its set launch date - with the requests for information hitting a wall of silence.

In May The Royal Gazette reported that the bank promised that its e-banking platform would be up and running in the "months to come" in a press release.

But attempts to find out when and what will happen to the site by the newspaper have repeatedly failed.

In May it said that the e-banking platform had gone live for selected customers as part of a test, and said if this proved successful, then the bank would go ahead with the system.

BCB has repeatedly set launch dates for the service and failed to meet them.

The bank announced in December, 1999 that the e-banking site would be up and running on January 1, 2000, in an elaborate presentation to the press and bank officials.

But by mid-January it said it had delayed implementation to deal with "security issues and integrity both for customers and the bank".

Garry Barret, manager of information technology, downplayed the problem in January 2000 sating: "There is always an element of the unknown that could cause a delay but the problem wasn't unusual."

It now appears that Mr. Barret no longer holds this position, as a short statement issued this week by BCB announced that Michael Cranfield has been appointed general manager, information technology.

Requests for more information about this appointment have gone unanswered.

What the problem actually is with the system is still not known. During the silence since then, reporters have been repeatedly told that the bank would contact the media as and when it had any news.

At one point the then director of the bank Barry Munholland said a new software package had to be approved.

"Right now we are just finalising the software package," he said in May, 2000. "Then beta testing should start in the next few weeks."

When asked for a possible start date, he said: "I am very hopeful it would be before the end of summer."

The online BCB services are supposed to include account transfers, balances and investment information. Customers have been told they will be able to view their account balances and transactions in any currency through a special currency converter and that online trading will also be available.

The e-banking system is to operate as a joint venture between Bermuda Commercial Bank and its major shareholder First Curacao International Bank. When Bermuda Commercial Bank was given its exemption from the 60/40 ownership rules, First Curacao upped its stake in the bank to 50 percent. When granting the exemption, Finance Minister Eugene Cox said the exemption for BCB was in the national interest.

Telephone calls from the press to the bank are met with a wall of silence. The bank said enquiries now have to be made by fax or e-mails to the bank's president and chief executive officer John Deuss' secretary, Sue Barclay. Requests for information about the bank's e-banking platform have gone unanswered.

The bank has also failed to answer questions about when the bank will get a managing director.

At the moment Mr. Deuss is acting managing director of the bank. Barry Munholland became acting managing director when the last managing director, Peter Roberts, left in December 1999.

But left the bank in September 2000, and since then the bank has been run by Mr. Deuss as acting managing director.

The bank has been without a permanent managing director for a year and a half.

The bank also failed to answer questions about an announcement made on June 5 by the Bermuda Stock Exchange about the appointment of Michael Cranfield. The BSX said that BCB had advised them that: "Mr. Michael Cranfield, a Bermudian, has been appointed to the position of general manager, Information Technology, effective June 1, 2001."