Financial services regulator the Bermuda Monetary Authority has received the thumbs-up from the entities and professionals it oversees.

In its first external stakeholder survey, the BMA attracted a strongly positive rating, with 75 percent of respondents feeling it had performed well or very well as a regulator.

The paper-based survey was distributed to more than 300 investment businesses, insurers and financial service providers, and an impressively high 46 percent of them responded.

Though the results of various aspects of the BMA's work were predominantly positive, support was markedly lower in the area of on-site inspections and somewhat lower for the fee payment process. The BMA plans to address these areas in its 2009 Business Plan.

"I'm very pleased, on behalf of our staff, with these results," BMA chief executive officer Matthew Elderfield said. "It shows we are on track with executing our business plan and our mission statement. And it confirms that we have a good working relationship with our stakeholders."

He said the Authority would learn from the results and would focus on improving in areas of weakness to emerge from the survey. For example, less than half of respondents (47 percent) agreed that the BMA's on-site inspection was carried out effectively.

"Regarding on-sites, we have been building up our resources and capabilities to support that programme," Mr. Elderfield said. "We intend to use the experience from having now successfully completed a full rotation of on-sites across all high impact firms to increase efficiencies in the process. That will include a faster turnaround in providing results of on-sites." While 61 percent of those polled believed the BMA's fee collection process was efficient, Mr. Elderfield felt it was also an area to target improvements. He said the late enactment of laws revising fees, due to last December's General Election, had created delays.

The Authority plans to introduce electronic payments via a draw down system, which would enable corporate service providers (CSPs) to open an account with the BMA, which would be credited each time the CSP made an application.

Overall, there was strong approval of the knowledge and professionalism of staff, transparency in objectives and processes, delivering on commitments, responsiveness and effective communication.

Some 83 percent of respondents agreed that the BMA protects Bermuda's reputation as a quality international financial centre, while 61 percent say it provides value for money.

Mr. Elderfield wants to see the BMA develop into a leading risk-based financial regulator and was happy to see that 61 percent of respondents believed it had already achieved that status.

The Authority's website got a huge stamp of approval from respondents, while 76 percent thought the company incorporation process was carried out effectively.

"We are very happy to have received this level of endorsement, but we are not complacent," Mr. Elderfield said. "Our goal is to ensure that we execute our duties as Bermuda's financial regulator as efficiently as possible.

"We recognise that we must maintain our high level of performance and will continue to focus on continual improvement."

The complete 28-page survey is available on the BMA's website, www.bma.bm.