purchasing travellers' cheques worth up to $3,000.

In a step toward the deregulation of exchange controls, residents will no longer have to fill out form FC when buying the cheques.

But those buying foreign cash will still have to fill out a form.

The move comes in an increasingly deregulated environment as Bermudians become more and more used to using credit cards overseas.

The BMA is now using other ways of collecting exchange control statistics, enabling it to drop the forms.

The Authority's general manager, Mr. Malcolm Williams said: "We are trying to make life easier for the general public. It creates an easier system.

"The amounts up to $3,000 represent 80 percent of forms filled out and there used to be about 130,000 forms a year completed,'' he said.

Mr. Williams said he was confident the latest liberalisation of exchange controls will not lead to an increase in the exporting of money for contraband, such as drugs.

He said: "Every system can be abused. But, I'm fairly confident that anyone trying to export a significant sum of money will be discovered by the banks.''