When it comes to stock exchanges Bermuda is quite a few notches ahead of its southern competitor the Cayman Islands — as has been borne out by a lament from a Cayman's business commentator.

The Cayman Stock Exchange is celebrating its 10th anniversary but remains a single dimension exchange with no "buying and selling" of stocks, unlike the Bermuda's BSX which is a fully functioning exchange operating in the manner of the NYSE, London FTSE and other international models.

In recent days, Bermuda's offshore financial jurisdiction rival has weighed in with comments about events surrounding the Bermuda Housing Corporation scandal and efforts to locate the missing files and to gag the media from reporting details.

While Cayman Net News has urged its Government not to follow the Bermuda model being played out at the moment, a business commentator has, through the same media organisation, lamented Cayman's stock exchange.

While no mention in the article was made of Bermuda's BSX, an interesting "compare and contrast" can be made between the stock exchanges operated by the two jurisdictions.

Bermuda has the real McCoy. The BSX is the only Index in an offshore jurisdiction that is a full member of the World Federation of Exchanges.

It allows locals and others to invest in domestic companies, such as Belco, Butterfield Bank and Kentucky Fried Chicken (Bermuda).

International companies such as Ace and HSBC also use the BSX as secondary exchange market.

So a Bermuda resident can invest directly in companies here, helping them raise capital and expand, and reap the benefit through dividends and stock appreciation.

That is not the case in Cayman, which has a listings exchange but not a trading facility. Companies and funds can list in Cayman, giving them a level of respectability, transparency and reassuring investors that they are regulated to a certain standard as demanded by the jurisdiction's authorities.

But a Cayman resident, unlike a Bermuda resident, cannot put money into their local utility companies or firms through the Cayman Stock Exchange (CSX) to take a vested interest in the strength of the Cayman economy.

Cayman Net News commentator Andre Iton wrote that while much will be made of the progress of the CSX in its 10 years of operation: "We are unlikely to hear that the exchange has not attempted to perform the primary functions normally associated with such institutions."

He referred primarily to the ability to buy and sell stocks, raise capital and invest — especially providing opportunities for small investors.

Mr. Iton speculates that over the past 10 years Cayman residents have missed out on the opportunity to invest in stocks worth more than $200 million, and furthermore a trading platform could have proved a major catalyst for financial education of the population at large.

Bermuda's BSX was established in 1971, but it is only since the early 1990s that it has modernised to its current state where it is a scaled-down version of the full service exchanges in New York, London and elsewhere.

BSX president and CEO Greg Wojciechowski said he was aware of the differences in the two jurisdiction's exchanges and feels Bermuda can be justly proud of what its full service exchange.

"Exchanges have to serve the purpose of furthering the development of a domestic economy and providing investors options. We chose to develop the full trading mechanism and settlement mechanism. We have the whole suite here in Bermuda and these are the components that help mature an economy," he said.

He also pointed out another benefit of having a full service exchange like the BSX is that Government could, if it chose, raise institutional capital for large projects, such as replacing the Causeway, through various investment instruments on the exchange allowing Bermuda residents to put some of their money forward to help fund the projects and see a return on their investment in the long run.