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HBOS, whose dealing rooms operate under the name of Bank of Scotland Treasury, has made two senior appointments to its Australian FX operations. Michael Peric joined as head of trading from NAB in early June. He has been joined by Matt Brady as head of FX trading.

Last year BDO-EPCIB won the best bank in the Philippines award from perennial contender Bank of the Philippines Islands in recognition of the former’s strong results and the ambition of its merger, the largest in the country’s banking history. The newly merged entity, now called BDO, has almost completed the integration of Equitbale PCI bank and looks to be making a real success of the historic deal.

Icap has confirmed the launch of its web-based version of EBS.

After suffering from several departures to local rivals, especially VTB, Deutsche Bank has sought to bolster its Moscow office with new hires. Alex Bronin is appointed head of emerging markets structuring for Russia/CIS, Valeri Pouchni, head of rates and FX trading, Andrey Yumatov, head of corporate derivative sales, Alex Danylenko, head of local-currency bond trading, and Diana Nikolova as a senior structurer focusing on Russian structured credit.

In the past three years, HSBC Honduras has multiplied its product offering with new savings accounts and long-term deposit incentives. This year e-banking was also launched by the bank with a novel website that improves security and brings it to international levels.

Paraguay is yet to embrace the capital markets and is ranked as not only one of the poorest countries in Latin America but also one of the most corrupt, even after becoming a democracy more than 20 years ago. In August, Paraguay will have a new president, Fernando Lugo, and with him comes renewed hope that corruption will be brought under control and Paraguay can realize its potential.

BRD remains the bank to watch in Romania, having reported the highest net profit of any Romanian bank in 2007. Net profit rose by 43% to €279 million-equivalent. Despite sizeable investments in technology, network expansion and staff recruitment and training, which helped it to attract 300,000 new customers in 2007, BRD still maintained its position as the most profitable bank in Romania, with a return on equity of 35.4%. On the retail side, the bank boosted lending by 45% as well as launching a new life insurance arm, BRD Fond de Pensii. In corporate banking, the bank provides a comprehensive range of products and services spanning small businesses through to multinational corporations. With regard to investment banking, BRD has continued to build its corporate finance, brokerage and asset management operations, which should ensure that fee income helps mitigate any slowdown in interest income resulting from a drop.

JPMorgan

As the second largest financial institution in Montenegro, NLB Montenegrobanka is a key player in the country’s burgeoning banking sector, serving a growing number of retail and corporate customers through its 15-strong branch network. In 2007, the bank nearly tripled its profits to €3.4 million. As a member of Slovenia’s NLB banking group, NLB Montenegrobanka has helped to forge important economic links between Slovenia and Montenegro. By providing consumer loans for goods manufactured by Slovene producers, the bank has helped Slovene companies to enter the Montenegrin market. At the same time it provides loans and other forms of export financing to Montenegrin companies exporting to Slovenia.

Central and eastern Europe’s newest country can count on one of the region’s most experienced banks to deliver high-quality financial services. Raiffeisen Bank has established a strong market position: it leads in retail, corporate and SME lending volumes. In 2007, total lending at Raiffeisen rose almost 50% from €222 million to reach €330 million. The bank is also playing a leading role in attracting money into the official economy, with total deposits rising to €396 million from €310 million. The bank is profitable as well as important to economic and social development, with net profit rising from €10.79 million in 2006 to €14.68 million in 2007.

After winning this award in 2006 and 2007, Bank of Georgia continues to affirm its position as Georgia’s leading financial institution with yet another year of stellar performance. Deposits grew 142.2% to $851.6 million, and outstanding mortgages rose 103.5% to 4,230, an increase in the value of those mortgages of 187.2%, to nearly $150 million. In the retail division, revenue per employee rose by a half.

In Ecuador, choosing the best bank is easy. Banco Pichincha stands out as a clear winner in this relatively immature market.