The rate of new company incorporations for the third quarter of 2001, which ended on September 30, appears to be in decline with 376 incorporation applications being approved in the third quarter of 2001 compared to 505 during the same period the year before.

The statistics were released yesterday in the Bermuda Monetary Authority's (BMA) third quarter notice and show that the most significant decline comes from the exempted company sector which recorded 261 new exempt companies in contrast to 391 during the same period of 2000.

BMA general manager Monroe Sutherland said: "The incorporation of companies during 2001 is generally down on the year before." He said this followed a global trend as the same period saw declining growth in other countries.

Mr. Sutherland added: "The other significant thing to bear in mind is that 2000 saw an extraordinarily high number of incorporations; way higher than in previous years."

Mr. Sutherland said the overall dip in new companies coming to the Island during the third quarter should be seen as "a return to levels consistent with long term trends".

The one exception to the drop-off in new company incorporations for the third quarter is a jump in the number of unit trusts established. The first and second quarter of 2001 recorded a total of three new unit trusts while the third quarter saw 41 unit trusts established.

Mr. Sutherland said he did not see this jump as a trend and said there may be other factors behind the surge. Unit trusts are investment entities that follow a UK model.

Mr. Sutherland said mutual funds - which fall under exempted company incorporations - have been the more popular form of collective investment scheme (CIS) for Bermuda.

The total number of CIS registered in Bermuda at the end of the third quarter stood at 1,528 with $49.45 billion in net asset value. Of that total, 1,406 were defined as mutual funds and 122 were registered as unit trusts.