company in Bermuda.

The bank has applied to form an exempted firm to be called Coutts & Co.

(Bermuda) Ltd.

Lawyer Mr. Alec Anderson, a partner in Conyers, Dill and Pearman, said: "They would very much like to have a trust company here.

"They are not here to be a bank and they are not interested in being a bank in Bermuda.

"Coutts & Co. will bring added wherewithal to the trust business in Bermuda.'' Coutts & Co., which is wholly-owned by the National Westminster Bank, is one of England's oldest banks and specialises in private client and trust work.

It is the bank of The Queen and other British royalty.

The business has other trust companies offshore, including one in the Isle of Man, where the president and CEO of Coutts & Co.'s trust business, Mr. Peter Stradling, is based.

Mr. Stradling declined to comment yesterday on the planned Bermuda operation.

Swiss-based private banker Lombard-Odier is the only exempted concern so far to win one of the 21 trust company licences issued under Bermuda's new trust legislation.

Coutts & Co. joins Schroders, the British merchant and investment banking group, in applying to become Bermuda's second foreign-based trust company.

Mr. Alec Anderson.