stance that a leading Scottish bank is taking towards its transvestite customers.

The Royal Bank of Scotland will allow transvestites to use two of its new high-security cheque guarantee cards -- one with a photo of them dressed as a man, and the other as a woman.

The sympathetic attitude to transvestite tendencies in Scotland may be has something to with the fact that it has long been considered de rigueur for a Scotsmen to be seen wearing a kilt at formal occasions.

Business Diary wonders how long it will take Bermuda to redress its archaic laws on homosexual sex, and if a Bermuda bank would ever in the far distant future take the plunge, and issue cross-dressing customers with a second card for use when shopping in Hamilton dressed as a woman.

*** GVT The Governor of the Bank of England, Mr. Eddie George, affectionately known as "Steady Eddie'', certainly lived up to his nickname during an interview in Bermuda last week.

Mr. George visited the Island to participate in the Bermuda Monetary Authority's 25th anniversary celebrations.

The delightfully calm and softly-spoken Mr. George was asked about the possibility of Bermuda benefiting from an independent BMA.

The question appeared to hit a raw nerve with BMA chairman Mr. Mansfield (Jim) Brock, and to a lesser extent, BMA general manager Mr. Malcolm Williams.

It was hammered home that the BMA is not a Government department, or even a sub-division of the Ministry of Finance, but was created by an Act of Parliament.

"The BMA has a clear mandate, which is set out in the Act,'' said an irate Mr. Brock.

And no director at the BMA may be a member of either house, chipped in Mr.

Williams.

A serene Mr. George watched on.

"Independence is not so much a matter of statute. You are as independent as you feel,'' he commented.

"It is like age,'' said the Governor of the Bank of England. "And I know Mr.

Brock feels very young and totally independent.'' *** BUC A leading banker had a 37-year closet secret revealed during a meeting at the Royal Bermuda Yacht club last week.

Investment buffs may have been taken aback to hear the Butterfield Asset Management Director, Mr. Preston Hutchings, reveal a little known fact about "Leeward,'' the Fairylands home of Butterfield's Bank chairman, Sir David Gibbons.

Sir David was leading bank executives in explaining new investment opportunities for Bermudians. Mr. Hutchings, who directly followed Sir David to the podium, injected some degree of humour into the affair by first telling about how he and the Chairman shared an unusual commonality.

He explained: "The linen closet in Sir David's house was my nursery for sometime after I was first born,'' to an amused sigh of relief.

"Leeward'' was formerly owned by Mr. Hutchings grandmother in those days. He later remarked that although he hadn't been in the house for many years, he remembered the linen closet as being the size of a full room.

*** BUC Two former Bank of Bermuda employees (see photograph) showed their faces in Bermuda recently.

They were back on the Island for a promotional visit on behalf of GT Management PLC, one of the top three players in offshore funds.

Mr. Richard Thompson, previously with the accounting department of the bank for three years until 1985, and Mr. Rob Broad, who worked in the bank's corporate trust department for two years, are promoting GT Management from Guernsey.

During a presentation last week, they outlined the advantages of investing in offshore funds because of the absence of tax payments.

The fund is owned by the Royal Family of Liechtenstein, and has an administrative office in Bermuda, dealing in forty offshore funds.

FAMILIAR FACES -- Richard Johnson, left, and Mr. Rob Broad, two former Bank of Bermuda employees are back on the Island promoting G.T Management (Guernsey) Ltd. For more, see Business Diary.