due to the company policy of focussing on its Island customers and being a bank for Bermuda.

The Directors of Bermuda Commercial Bank said they were pleased at the bank's annual results for the financial year ending September 30, 1999, which were released this week.

The figures show BCB growing consistently since the First Curacao International Bank took over in 1993.

This year the bank's net income was $4.1 million, with customer deposits at $428.2 million at the year end.

There was an anomaly last year when a spate of unexpected deposits by the bank's customers saw the net income in 1997/1998 rise well above the Trend Line, according to chairman and chief executive officer, John Deuss.

According to the bank, the growth resulted from promising a clean and liquid balance sheet which minimised risk and focussed solely on the Bermuda marketplace.

The bank claims the policy of focusing on the local market had worked well but it was now time to look further afield to the global opportunities presented by the growth of electronic commerce. BCB intended to take full advantage of these opportunities.

The Board of Directors also approved a Dividend of 20 cents per share for the second half-year of 1998/1999, taking the dividend for the full year to 40 cents, an increase of 14 percent over 1997/1998.

Mr. Deuss said that the Dividend for 1998/1999 was double that paid two years ago in 1996/1997.

On the rise: The chart shows the BCB's steady results over the last few years.