Michael Collins is relishing the challenge of trying to establish Butterfield Bank as the No. 1 bank in Bermuda.

Mr. Collins, who was this week appointed senior executive vice-president, Bermuda, along with counterpart Conor O'Dea as senior executive vice-president, Caribbean at the bank, believes he will be able to draw on his extensive knowledge and experience of the Island's banking industry to improve customer service and drive the bank forward on all fronts.

He plans to move Butterfield onto the offensive to win back client confidence following a trying couple of years which culminated in the bank receiving a $550 million capital injection this month from mainly foreign investors who stepped in to help it out during its hour of need.

"The biggest challenge is what we all need to do culturally as far as moving from being in a defensive posture over the last couple of years based on our financial balance sheet problems to taking a more offensive posture," he said.

"As an organisation we have gone from not being able to do much from a growth perspective to going through the transaction to get recapitalised and now, going forward, we need to focus on aggressively selling our products and services and providing the best customer service available."

In his new role, Mr. Collins, who joined Butterfield in August 2009 as executive vice-president, corporate development and has since spearheaded a number of important initiatives at the bank, including its successful recapitalisation, will have overall responsibility for commercial and retail banking, wealth management and custody, as well as the supporting human resources, marketing and administrative functions.

He said the bank's Bermuda, Caribbean and European operations would work more closely together on strategies such as credit, for whom he will chair the group credit committee, as well as taking charge of the group's asset management, pension and charitable donations committees, but above all, he would be focused on making Butterfield the best bank on the Island.

Mr. Collins, who has 25 years of experience in financial services, including at JP Morgan in New York and as chief operating officer at HSBC in Bermuda, said the bank would be concentrating 100 percent on the front end of the business and customer interaction in the future.

"I have been in banking in Bermuda for 17 to 18 years, so I know the market and I know a lot of the people, which makes it easier. Now I have the opportunity to take the banking client knowledge to try to create a Bermuda bank that I can be proud of and our people can be proud of and that our clients have the knowledge and respect of," he said.

"It is a great bank and I view my new role as a great challenge and a lot of fun."