Hot on the heels of Bank of N.T. Butterfield & Son?s announcement that it had bid for the exclusive bank Leopold Joseph, Bermuda?s oldest bank has said it has bought a third bank in the Bahamas.

The bank has acquired Deerfield Fund Services Ltd of Nassau, a company which provides offshore fund administration services.

?This acquisition has strategic significance,? said Graham Brooks, executive vice president, International and Trust at the Bank of Butterfield Group. ?It will enable us to enhance the services we provide in The Bahamas through the expanded delivery of fund administration, one of Bank of Butterfield?s core business activities. Deerfield has built a high quality niche business with excellent potential for growth.?The business will be re-named Butterfield Fund Services (Bahamas) Ltd. and will continue to be led by managing director Heather Bellot, who will report to Robert Lotmore, managing director, Bank of Butterfield (Bahamas) Ltd.

Bank of Butterfield (Bahamas) is made up of two banks bought in August last year, Thorland Bank and Trust, a Bahamian-owned offshore bank established in 1960 and Leopold Joseph (Bahamas) Ltd. (a subsidiary of Leopold Joseph which the bank has just bid for). The two acquisitions were merged at the end of 2003 and have assets worth between $1 billion and $1.5 billion and 38 staff.

Mr. Lotmore said: ?Deerfield?s highly skilled employees and specialised technology will allow us to offer a superior service to a growing market. The company?s activities and customer base are an excellent fit with our business, and we anticipate opportunities to expand the services we offer to fund managers.?

Established in 1999, Deerfield employs a team of 12 people and at its last financial year end, 31 December 2003, its assets under administration were $1.8 billion.

?We look forward to working with our new colleagues and anticipate a smooth transition to the new ownership. We expect to be able to integrate the company with our new business quite quickly as we are located in the same premises,? added Mr. Lotmore.

Bank of Butterfield has been on a massive expansion plan in the past six months, which has also seen it buy up the Mutual Bank of the Caribbean Inc, a Barbadian retail bank in December from its major shareholder Sagicor Financial group.

It is a retail bank with assets worth $125 million and has15,000 customers in Barbados and is a full-service community bank with 115 employees.

On Thursday Bank of Butterfield announced that it had put in a bid for Leopold Joseph, a London private bank for $94.5 million and with 120 staff.

Bank of Butterfield also has an office in Cayman which was set up in 1967 with assets of $1.2 billion, net income of $17.9 million and staff of 272

Bank of Butterfield has 742 staff in Bermuda and this week reported earnings for 2003 of $76.5 million. The bank said the year results meant a 14.6 percent jump on 2002 earnings, if you exclude the $17 million gain on the sale of subsidiaries in Hong Kong in 2002. Fourth quarter earnings stood the same as the previous year at $20 million.