The Central Bank of Bahrain has officially approved Banca della Svizzera Italiana’s upgrade of its representative office in the Kingdom to a full investment business branch.

The Lugano-headquartered private bank, which has had a representative licence in Bahrain since 2008, intends its Bahrain branch to operate as a hub from which it will serve clients across the entire Middle East.

“BSI believed that Bahrain was the ideal place to set up its presence in the Middle East. We have expanded our team who provide specialised asset management services and upgraded our licence to expand our product and service offerings in the Middle East to better serve our client base,” said Edmondo Sarteur, chief executive of BSI’s Bahraini Branch.

In September BSI reported that its net profits in the first half of 2012 rose by 32.5 per cent to SFr42.6 million (around $44.6 milion) from a year ago, saying that performance was driven by its expansion into overseas markets.

As at 30 June 2012, client assets under management stood at SFr81.5 billion, up by 4.9 per cent compared with SFr77.7 billion at the end of 2011.

The firm logged SFr2.7 billion of net new money in the first half of 2012, which, when annualised, is a rise of 7 per cent. All regions made a positive contribution, it said.

BSI, which is owned by Italian insurer Generali, attributed the growth spurt in net new money to its continued successful expansion in fast-growing markets. It pointed to particularly strong growth in Asia, Latin America, Eastern Europe, Russia and the Middle East.