The International Monetary Fund review and assessment of Bermuda will not be ready for "some time", according to the Bermuda Monetary Authority.

And the IMF said the report could take up to a year to complete - meaning it may not be ready before March 2004.

The BMA revealed it was still waiting for "substantive feedback" from the fund, after sending off responses from a draft report compiled by the IMF in March this year.

"At the end of the visit, they presented the authority and the Minister of Finance, in accordance with their normal practice, with an initial discussion draft of their conclusions," said the BMA in its first quarterly report published last week.

"The authority has subsequently, after consultation with relevant officials, provided the fund with very detailed comments on this draft but still awaits substantive feedback from the fund. Finalisation of the report is likely to take some time."

A spokesperson for the IMF yesterday told The Royal Gazette: "It is still in preparation and the normal time for issuance is about one year.

"At any rate, it will be first delivered to the authorities before made public so the fastest way to know about its findings would be through the authorities."

Bermuda has faced yet more international scrutiny with the visit of a ten-person team in March this year as part of an in-depth study into the island as an offshore financial centre.

After facing international scrutiny from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) and KPMG, the Island has once again been placed in the international spotlight.

The Island's financial sector is this time being assessed by IMF staff - who are checking up on all offshore territories as part of a world-wide review.

So far the IMF has reviewed 19 offshore financial centres from Vanuatu and Seychelles to Anguilla, Guernsey, Montserrat and Bermuda.

The IMF team has apparently made a number of suggestions to improve Bermuda's regulatory and supervisory framework, which have not yet been made public.

The assessment team was on the Island from March 17 to 28 to look at the strengths and weaknesses of Bermuda's regulatory system including the anti-money laundering framework and enforcement provisions.

It then presented the Government with a "detailed report" - a two volume draft report handed over at the wrap-up session on March 28, but the then acting Finance Minister Paula Cox said at the time that it would be "some months yet" before the report was finalised.

The IMF said that they hoped the report would be ready by the end of June, but before then the BMA and the Ministry of Finance would continue to have discussions with the IMF as part of the process to complete the report.

But now the BMA, in its quarterly update published last week, has said that "finalisation of the report is likely to take some time".

The BMA said it was extensively involved in the preparation for the IMF visit and helped with "completion of substantial pre-visit questionnaires covering insurance supervision, banking supervision, investment regulation, companies and trust services providers as well as Bermuda's anti-money laundering provisions".

The BMA said that these questionnaires provided the initial factual background for completion of assessments against international criteria.

During the visit the BMA said that the IMF team met with a wide range of BMA staff, Government officials and ministers and a number of regulated financial sector businesses and industry groups.

And now, after sending off its comments on the draft produced by the IMF, the BMA is waiting for feedback from the fund.

"Generally the authority (BMA) viewed the outcome of the visit, on the basis of the initial draft and our contacts with different members of the assessment team, as positive, with the IMF clearly recognising the effectiveness of Bermuda's regulatory approach and strength of its commitment to international standards."

The decision to review Bermuda was made in July 2000, when the IMF's executive board asked staff to extend financial sector work to include offshore financial centres through a voluntary programme of assessments and technical assistance.

"The aim is to help strengthen financial supervision of offshore financial centres, so that international rules and arrangements apply to offshore financial centres to promote greater co-operation among supervisors.

"To this end, IMF staff undertake detailed assessments of the extent to which offshore financial centres meet the standards advocated by the international standard-setters, and of any further action required to meet these standards."