“We are primarily a private equity business, but because private equity will be quiet for the next 12 to 24 months until the banking sector stabilises, we have reactivated our trading business,” says Albert Kittaneh, chief executive officer of BMB.

He says the bank will begin marketing funds based on equities in the US, and a fund based on Far East markets soon.

BMB was active in equity trading until the end of the internet investment boom in 2000.