Butterfield Fund Services to open in Halifax, Canada

Date: Thursday, November 16, 2006
Author: Village.albourne.com

The Bank of N.T. Butterfield & Son Limited of Bermuda announced yesterday that its Fund Services division will open a fund administration centre in Halifax, Canada. Operating as Butterfield Fund Services (Canada) Limited, the centre will provide fund accounting and administrative services to hedge funds and other alternative investment vehicles.

“This is an important milestone for Butterfield Bank,” noted Frank Sebestyen, Senior Vice President and Head of Group Fund Services at the Bank. “Over the past several years, Fund Services has been an area of rapid growth for the Bank, and establishing an office in Halifax will provide us with the added scale we need to seek to continue expanding our business.”

Butterfield Fund Services is a leading provider of administration services to managers of hedge funds worldwide, with assets under administration of over $65 billion serviced out of offices in Bermuda, the Cayman Islands, Guernsey and The Bahamas. With its services in high demand, the establishment of an office in Halifax will increase the Bank’s capacity to take on additional business from the growing U.S. hedge fund market.

Butterfield Fund Services expects to locate its new fund administration centre in downtown Halifax and will begin hiring staff in January 2007. Alan Thompson, Butterfield Bank President & CEO, said, “Halifax is an excellent location from which to establish a base for future growth. The city offers a strong business and telecommunications infrastructure, and the many universities and colleges in the area provide a large pool of qualified young candidates from which we can recruit.” Mr. Thompson added, “There are many historical ties between Bermuda and Atlantic Canada. With the high level of cooperation we have received from the Nova Scotia government and the warm welcome we have received from the Halifax business community, we see those relationships strengthening in the future.”

John Lewis, Managing Director Butterfield Fund Services (Cayman) Limited, commented, “We are delighted to be able to continue to grow our business and the opening of a Halifax office allows us to establish a foundation for the Bank’s future growth. The new positions that the Bank will be creating will offer opportunities for a wide range of financial professionals, from recent business graduates to senior accounting professionals from all over the world. We will be recruiting in Halifax but would be happy to hear from accountants in Cayman, Bermuda or elsewhere in Canada looking to move to the Maritimes.