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Jamie McWilliam, Asian head of the financial markets derivative solutions group at ABN AMRO in Hong Kong, has left the firm. Reasons for his departure could not be determined by press time and McWilliam could not be reached. Hui Yuk Min, spokeswoman at ABN in Hong Kong, confirmed the move and noted a replacement is still being decided.

The Royal Bank of Scotland has hired Matthew Reader, executive director responsible for credit correlation at UBS in London, as global head of correlation trading in London. He fills the hole left by Sanjeev Gupta, co-head of global credit trading and head of correlation trading (DW, 1/20).

Deutsche Bank has hired Greg Berman, v.p. in the firm's quantitative products engineering group in New York, from Citigroup. Renee Calabro, Deutsche Bank spokeswoman, said Berman will start this week and report to Chrif Youssfi, director and head of the quantitative products group within global markets equity in New York, who is building out the group. Youssfi declined comment.

UBS has hired Jonathon Boos, director responsible for third-party equity derivatives marketing, from JPMorgan in New York. Jeff Sparks, managing director in equity derivatives, said Boos starts May 15, reporting to Gale Herzing, managing director. Boos replaces Chris Rosen, director, who left UBS last month for HSBC. Herzing was out of town and unavailable for comment.

HSBC in New York has hired Andrea Barrezueta, v.p. and multi-asset structured originator for high-net-worth accounts, from Wells Fargo Capital Management in San Francisco.

The Deputy president of Poland’s National Bank declares that the country risks missing its best chance to prepare for euro adoption

Credit ratings agency Fitch Ratings has revised its ratings on five El Salvadorian banks, the agency said in a statement. Fitch raised the long-term national scale rating on El Salvadorian Banco Agrícola, Banagrícola and Inversiones Financieras Banco Agrícola to AA from AA-, and the short-term rating to F1+ from F1. Fitch also upgraded its ratings outlook on El Salvadorian Banco Uno to stable from negative due to an improvement in the quality of the bank’s assets. It upgraded its ratings outlook on El Salvadorian state-run mortgage lender Fondo Social para la Vivienda to positive from stable due to an increase in its provisions.

With last weekÕs final payment of $4.5 billion, Nigeria has become the first African nation to settle all its debt to the Paris Club. The IMF gave Nigeria Õs economic reform programme a good appraisal, paving the way for the final exit from the Club through a debt buy-back scheme. The IMF approved the debt relief in October 2005. The terms of the agreement were that Nigeria would pay $12 billion to settle its $30 billion outstanding debt, amounting to a 60% discount

Taro Goto, a senior credit-default swap trader at The Royal Bank of Scotland in London, has quit after nine months at the firm. An insider confirmed he has taken a new position at another credit house, but his destination could not immediately be determined. Goto declined comment when reached on his cell.

Extracts from a speech by Dr Zeti Akhtar Aziz, Governor of the Central Bank of Malaysia, at the Tun Ismail Ali Chair Public Lecture in, Kuala Lumpur, 18 April 2006.

After the fireworks of 2005, the beginning of this year has been a slight anticlimax in the long dated euro bond market. Sovereign issuers have been largely absent after putting down markers last year, while a bear market has subdued demand. However, the long term trends supporting the long end have not changed and have tempted in several new entrants.

Russia's banks are thriving. Economic growth and private wealth are enabling them to expand their loan portfolios by 40% a year. But they are running out of capital, and will have to slow their asset growth soon if they do not find a solution. Subordinated debt can help, but as Julian Evans discovers, the main options are a foreign listing, help from the state or selling out to foreign banks.