Two Seas Trust, which offers trust services to Middle East private clients, has been opened in Bahrain by Keypoint, a firm based in the region and Ogier, providers of offshore legal and fiduciary services.

The official launch of Two Seas Trust was celebrated at the Ritz-Carlton Bahrain, Hotel and Spa and attended by Ogier chief executive officer Nick Kershaw and other partners, who travelled from Jersey for the event and senior management of Keypoint.

The event was also attended by more than 100 guests from Bahrain's financial and business community.

" Bahrain provides the perfect base to offer world-class trust and related administration services to the region," Mr Kershaw told Gulf Daily News.

"Since receiving our licence from the Central Bank of Bahrain in September last year, we have received a number of encouraging enquiries from Saudi and the UAE based clients,"  Two Seas Trust managing director Paul Perris told the newspaper.

"We are currently working on some initiatives and notwithstanding the nervousness due to the current worldwide financial crisis remain very optimistic about the development of trust based products.

"One of the benefits of setting up an office in this economic climate is that there is particular focus on corporate governance and succession planning initiatives and the launch of Two Seas Trust and our commitment to develop products for these purposes is, I think, very timely."

The business offers personal and corporate trust services under Bahraini Trust Law, to the increasing number of corporates and ultra high net worth individuals in the Middle East who are seeking to take advantage of the flexibility and confidentiality of the trust concept.

The joint venture has been licensed by the Central Bank of Bahrain under the Financial Trust Law 2006.

“Trusts are a widely used mode of wealth management in many western countries but remain a relatively new phenomenon in the Middle East. Bahrain is one of the first countries in the Middle East to enact its own trust law - in response to increasing wealth and interest in personal wealth planning in the region,” said Wajdi Al Jallad, managing director of Keypoint, in an October statement announcing plans for the venture.

Ogier Fiduciary Services is part of the Ogier Group, a Jersey based company which employs over 800 professional and support staff which includes 180 lawyers.

The group has a presence in eleven jurisdictions around the world and provides fiduciary services and advice on all aspects of BVI, Cayman, Guernsey and Jersey law through a network of offices that covers all time zones and key financial markets.