Middle East & Africa: Bahrain - Bahrain Offers Home Comforts For HNWIs - High Oil Prices And An Increasing Aversion To Western Markets Are Drawing Huge Flows Of Wealth Into The Gulf. This Is Creating A Highly Lucrative Market For Private Bankers In Bahrai

novel global trends have encouraged the Bahrain Monetary Agency (BMA) to mortar Bahrain's position as a private banking nave for the Gulf Co-operation Council region and wider Middle East markets. The logic behind the focus upon high-net-worth individuals (HNWIs) is simple: estimates of private wealth holdings are prodigious - in the region of $800bn-$900bn however research shows that less than 20% of local HNWI capital remains inside the GCC

Following the September 11 attacks upon the US - widely perceived in the Middle East to have ensueed in a hostile attitude towards Arabs - an increasing