Bermuda -- not for tax reasons but because it is an ideal location for cross-border business.

The news came as Bermuda was heavily featured in a Toronto Star story on Monday on offshore countries bidding to become e-commerce centres.

"Not all the contenders in the race for global e-commerce are pitching lax regulatory regimes or non-existent taxes as their key attractions,'' the story said.

"In fact, Bermuda, a long and upstanding player in international finance, makes a point of saying gamblers and pornographers aren't welcome.'' The story quotes Bermuda International Business Association marketing manager Ross Webber saying: "If tax was the only issue, you could look at a wide variety of different offshore jurisdictions, including Switzerland and Luxembourg.

The reason Bermuda has been so successful in attracting new e-commerce entrants is its overall package, Mr. Webber said, including its physical proximity to the United States, its sophisticated banking and telecommunications infrastructure, and its advanced e-commerce legislation.

The story said First Atlantic Commerce Ltd. was formed by Canadian Andrea Wilson in Bermuda to help online merchants settle their accounts anywhere in the world in any currency by processing the merchants' accounts through a single bank, regardless of whether they're taking Visa or MasterCard.

"Wilson's company is one of the reasons Toronto-based Internet company, Borderfree.com, is considering registering an office in Bermuda,'' the story said.

" `I was looking for a company that would give me one-stop shopping for multi-currency credit-card processing,' Borderfree's director of finance Maureen Kennedy said in a recent interview.

"Borderfree handles cross-border deliveries for online merchants. A US merchant that doesn't normally ship to Canada, for example, can use Borderfree to make a delivery.

"If moving to Bermuda also happens to lower Borderfree's tax rates, Kennedy said, that's a bonus, but it wasn't the initial attraction.

" `It's not that I want to avoid taxes. I just want to do the best for my shareholders,' she said.'' Bermuda was participating in a recent Strategy Institute offshore e-commerce conference in Toronto attended by two dozen lawyers, accountants and other advisers to Internet firms.

Bermudian Duncan Card, a lawyer with Toronto law firm Davies Ward Phillips & Vineberg who helped Government develop its e-commerce strategy, said of the Internet: "The servers can be in England. The database can be managed in San Francisco. The content can be created in India. And it can all be run from Toronto. The whole nature of the business is transborder, as soon as you flick the switch.''