Clear joins as a senior vice president and Technology manager, and Hilsley as a vice president. They both report to Andrew Sturrock, head of Development, International Payments Technology.

Clear joins the bank in November after a 14-year career at LBBW. He was most recently Senior Technology manager and head of Programme Management and Development where he provided the strategic development and co-ordination of all Information Technology (IT) and Banking requirements for their London office. Before this, Clear was LBBW's head of IT, a position he held for four years.

Hilsley has joined the bank with 13 years' IT experience across various industries, most recently performing a Programme Management role at Catlin Insurance. Prior to this, he was head of Technology Services for BPO specialists Xchanging, where he worked for five years in technology delivery to the Insurance sector.

"Bank of America Merrill Lynch has an aggressive, multi-year product investment and technology initiative," commented Keith West, head of Global Payments and International Branch Technology. "In order to enhance liquidity solutions such as electronic payment processing, we are expanding our Technology team - James and Richard are the first of several hires being made over the coming months. I am very pleased to welcome them onboard and believe they will contribute greatly to the development of the technology required to support the global build-out of our corporate banking platform."