Merrill Lynch of the US plans to expand its private banking operations in the Gulf, increasing the numbers of its staff in Bahrain and the UAE from 115 now to about 180 in two years. The bank says that its market share in private banking in the Gulf is 'relatively small' but growing rapidly.

Private banking is a highly secretive industry and Merrill Lynch, like its competitors, does not release figures for the size of its business in the Middle East. The bank says, however, that the client assets of its Dubai office increased by more than 50 per cent during 1997 and by the same amount in Bahrain during the last two years. Merrill Lynch estimated in a survey published in 1996 that the assets of Arab private investors were worth about $800,000 million, of which about half was owned by Saudi Arabians.

'It's a region which is growing fast, where individuals have a propensity to invest internationally,' says a Merrill Lynch spokesman, Richard Speigelberg. He says that although the US bank's market share in private banking is relatively small, worldwide and in the Middle East, the fragmented nature of the market in the region should enable it to expand. Like its Western competitors, Merrill Lynch is also pushing into investment banking in the region (Banking, MEED Special Report, 19:12:97).

Merrill Lynch plans to increase the numbers of its Bahrain staff from 45 to about 80, and its staff in Dubai from 70 to more than 100. Seventeen new relationship managers will be employed in Bahrain alongside 28 existing ones, and another 25 relationship managers will be added in Dubai to the 44 already there.

The bank has 1,200 relationship managers worldwide. Anwar Abusbaitain has been appointed as sales manager of the Bahrain office, which also covers Saudi Arabia, while Kuwait is covered from the UAE. Merrill Lynch opened a new office in Abu Dhabi earlier this year.