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The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) has announced the hire of Chris Mandell as its head of FX and local markets trading for the Americas. She will be based in Greenwich, Connecticut and RBS says the hire completes the senior management team for its sales and trading business in the US.

Published in conjuction with: ABN AMRO; Banco Urquijo; Bank Gutmann; Barclays Wealth; BBVA; Marfi n Popular Bank; Sal. Oppenheim; SEB; SG Private Banking; TechRules; The Standard Chartered Private Bank

BlackRock is considering its own line of exchange-traded funds. Robert Kapito, president, said that BlackRock is researching actively-managed ETFs but has not yet committed itself to the space. Kapito said that BlackRock will only consider active ETFs and is not interested in passive ETF strategies because the firm believes that active management benefits investors. Kapito did not discuss a time frame for a decision on active ETFs.

A discussion of the macro picture in FX markets was overseen by Paul Bednarczyk, currency strategist at consultants 4CAST, with David Simmonds, head of FX strategy at RBS, Simon Derrick, head of the currency strategy team at The Bank of New York Mellon and Luca Bindelli, currency economist at Morgan Stanley, participating

While Dubai quickly captures the attention of most investors looking at the Middle East region, other financial centres are moving to build sustainable market frameworks that will support further investment activity. Caroline Allen talks to Kuwait's Coast Investment Company.

Nigerian banks in London might be compared to the city’s famous red buses: you can wait an age for one to come along and then three or four appear at once. For 25 years there have been just two Nigerian banks in London, FBN and Union Bank of Nigeria. FBN was a branch of First Bank until it was turned into a full bank in 2002. It has a good steady business. “Not all bankers trust Nigerian risk,” says Peter Hinson, managing director of FBN Bank. “We act as a clearing house, for they take comfort from a UK payment.”

India: The State they’re in

Banks in central and eastern Europe are still posting results that laugh in the face of the credit crisis. But bad – or at least worse – times might be just around the corner for some. Charles Piggott reports.

Lebanon’s banks are slowly moving away from their traditional reliance on sovereign debt – but not because they lack faith in their own country. Alex Warren reports from Beirut.

Australia’s new finance minister still has to convince his fellow citizens that he can keep the economy on an even keel.

Rising food prices, in a country where people spend half their income on food already, are a crucial issue for finance minister Mirz Azizul Islam.

Today’s long-term rise in agricultural commodity prices is different from previous episodic spikes. Higher prices are having knock-on effects on companies in the sector, as well as on farmers and the poor, and causing a re-evaluation of business models. Peter Koh reports.