The Qatar Financial Centre Regulatory Authority has granted authorisation to Coutts & Co, the private banking arm of the Royal Bank of

Scotland.

Welcoming the firm to the QFC, QFCRA chairman and chief executive Phillip Thorpe said:

"We are delighted to see that the QFC legal and regulatory framework continues to make a very significant contribution to attracting leading financial institutions to



Qatar. These institutions are clearly confident in our commitment to international regulatory standards and we, in turn, acknowledge their commitment to contributing to the development of



Qatar's financial
services sector.

"Our aim continues to be the provision of a regulatory environment that is attractive to international, regional and domestic institutions. We now have 82 financial institutions licensed under the QFC umbrella and around another 20 applications under active consideration.



Qatar's continuing strong economic performance and the burgeoning demand for financial
services mean that this healthy growth in the number of high quality QFC institutions seems likely to continue.”