AS BUTTERFIELD BANK celebrates 150 years in business, the local asset management operation is reporting an increase in its portfolios in the face of world-wide economic pressures.

Butterfield Asset Management vice-president Caroline Prow observed,: "There has been a steady increase in asset/wealth management business. With the credit crunch and the fall of markets around the world, people are going for flight to safety, to more secure instruments."

She explained that Butterfield Asset Management catered mainly to international business companies, offshore banks and trust companies, functioning as a referral agency here to its office in Bermuda.

At the end of Butterfield Bank group's first three months of 2008, assets under management were $11.3 billion, up 4.9 per cent year on year.

This result was pushed by wealth management expansion in 2007 with the acquisition of Bentley Reid group and the establishment of Butterfield Trust (Switzerland) Limited in Geneva.

About asset management in Barbados, Prow said, "We sell the investment management services along with in-house mutual funds and our range of mutual funds, the majority of which are triple-A rated by Standard & Poor's, are good solid conservative investments and have great appeal in the time of turmoil that we are witnessing around the world."

The investment papers comprise nine in-house mutual funds, including money markets funds, bond funds and equity funds, she said. (SR)