Butterfield Bank intends to create 150 million new redeemable preference shares.

The move to increase the share capital of the bank is amongst the agenda items for the annual shareholders meeting to be held at the Bermuda Underwater Exploration Institute on April 18.

The meeting will also see a changing of the guard with regard to chairmanship of the board.

After a 29-year association with the Bank, James King retires as chairman and is to be replaced, on the recommendation of the board, by Brian Duperreault, who has served on the board since 1996 and was appointed co-vice chairman in 2006.

The board has recommended to shareholders that the empty director's seat on the board also left as a result of Mr. King's retirement be filled by Shaun Morris, a managing partner of law firm Appleby Hunter Bailhache.

Another board member stepping down is director Rod Ferguson, after 19 years, and the board is recommending his replacement as Bahamian business man Julian Francis, who was recently governor of the Central Bank of the Bahamas.

In its annual accounts the bank recorded a total income of $415.1 million, a 16.9 percent increase year-on-year, for 2006. Its total assets stood at $11.1 billion at the end of the year, a 21 percent improvement from the previous year.

The Butterfield Bank AGM will start at 4 p.m. at the BUEI a week on Wednesday.