In parallel with the debate over the future of the retail trade in Bermuda following the announcement of the closure of Trimingham's, there has been a quieter discussion about just what right the Bank of Bermuda has to purchase the Trimingham's main store.

This debate has had added currency since Government recently made its overnight policy change on the sale of property in which Bermudians were banned from selling their homes to non-Bermudians.

That change was made for two reasons, first to prevent the practice of "fronting" in which Bermudians acted as "fronts" for non-Bermudians purchasing property and, secondly, to prevent any more land and homes owned by Bermudians from passing to non-Bermudians.

When it was announced that the Bank of Bermuda, which is 100 percent owned by the international bank HSBC Plc, it begged the question of how that squared with the philosophy behind the recently announced policy on land sales.

After all, if Bermudians had a right to retain residential property, surely they had just as much right to retain control of commercial property, much of which is infinitely more valuable.

Finance Minister Paula Cox explained that although the bank was owned by HSBC, it was, for banking licence purposes, a local business and therefore did not need special permission to buy the building, as, for example, ACE Ltd. and XL Capital had when they bought the old Bermudiana hotel property.

The explanation passed the legal test, although in terms of common sense, it left many people floored. How could the bank be "local" if it was foreign-owned?

Nonetheless, given that the bank must provide local retail banking services and so on, it makes sense that it should be able to expand as necessary.

But Ms Cox then went a step further. In the House of Assembly last week, she said that under the Companies Act the Bank of Bermuda remained a local company.

This newspaper then paraphrased Ms Cox adding: "An alliance exists between the bank and global banking giant HSBC, she said, however the Bank of Bermuda is a local company and one reason permission was given for the move was because economic control would be retained in the hands of Bermudians."

Perhaps it was the late hour, but it seemed that Ms Cox had taken leave of her senses.

There is no alliance between the bank and HSBC. HSBC owns the Bank of Bermuda lock, stock and barrel. It has agreed to retain the Bank of Bermuda name for five years and to allow the bank to keep its own board of directors, but so what? Ultimately, HSBC will decide what's best for the Bank of Bermuda, and no matter how much Bermudians might protest, it can do it.

Equally, if Ms Cox thinks economic control of the bank remains in the hands of Bermudians, she is naive at best and deluded at worst.

Even if the chief executive of the Bank is Bermudian and the majority of the board are Bermudian, they serve only at the pleasure of HSBC. Anyone who thinks otherwise is a prime candidate to buy a bridge.

Once upon a time, when Premier Alex Scott was an opposition Senator, he was fond of using the phrase "if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it's a duck". For all of Ms Cox's protests ? and Mr. Scott's, for that matter ? the Bank of Bermuda is foreign-owned and it is time to drop the pretence otherwise.