Butterfield Bank has signalled that future growth will be driven by selective expansion across other island markets, with Michael Collins, the chairman and chief executive, pointing to acquisitions as a key lever alongside the lender’s strong performance in Bermuda.

“We remain focused on growth through private trust and bank acquisitions in order to achieve scale in island markets that we understand,” Mr Collins said during the bank’s fourth-quarter earnings call.

The strategy comes as Butterfield continues to deliver strong results from its core offshore banking and trust businesses. Management said its banking jurisdictions in Bermuda and the Channel Islands “continued to perform well”, generating stable non-interest income supported by solid core deposits and strong franchise-level market share.

Butterfield also reiterated its view that Bermuda remains one of the world’s leading trust jurisdictions.

“We believe having trust companies in Guernsey, Bermuda, Cayman, Switzerland and Singapore, those are the best trust jurisdictions,” Mr Collins said.

On credit quality, the bank said it was not seeing broader signs of stress in its loan book. Any movement in non-performing assets during the quarter was linked to a small number of commercial accounts, primarily in Bermuda, rather than reflecting systemic deterioration.

“We’re not seeing systemic shifts in NPA migration,” said Michael Schrum, the chief financial officer. “It’s really related to a few commercial accounts sort of scattered throughout the network, mostly in Bermuda for this quarter.”

The comments followed a strong set of fourth-quarter and full-year results for fiscal 2025, which the bank has already reported. For the year ended December 31, net income rose 6.9 per cent to $231.9 million, while core net income increased to $237.5 million. Fourth-quarter net and core net income came in at $63.8 million, or $1.54 per diluted share.

Butterfield also maintained an aggressive capital return strategy, paying dividends of $1.88 per share in 2025 and repurchasing 3.5 million shares, while authorising a new buyback programme for up to three million shares.