Raymond Li has been named head of financial institutions for East Asia at the Bank of Tokyo Mitsubishi UFJ (BTMU).

Li joins the bank from BNP Paribas, where he was most recently head of financial institutions for China. He is based in Hong Kong, reporting to CEO for East Asia, Hidekazu Horikoshi.

Before spending approximately five years with the French bank, Li worked as head of insurance for financial institutions across the Asia Pacific division of HSBC, a role he held from 2006. Prior to this he was a partner in actuarial services at KPMG for more than six years.

His recruitment is part of BTMU’s drive to streamline its corporate banking structure in East Asia and to grow its market share among companies there, Horikoshi says.

He adds: “The appointment of an experienced banker like Raymond to our global corporate banking business will certainly enhance our ability to partner our clients as they seek to embrace opportunities from this dynamic region.

“With Raymond’s excellent network and knowledge of the key decision makers of financial institutions across East Asia, he will be an important addition to our team, particularly as we expand our offer, and its relevance, to help our clients in East Asia grow.”

His move is the latest in a line of recent senior hires BTMU has made in Asia Pacific. In December 2016, Ooi Chenn Siong was named head of loan markets and syndication for the region, based out of Singapore. A month earlier, Shirish Garg was appointed regional lead for supply chain finance sales, transaction banking, also based in Singapore.

This followed a rejig of the trade finance operation at the beginning of 2016, spearheaded by the recruitment of Azim Walli from ANZ. Walli is head of trade and supply chain products for Asia and Oceania, and was joined by Meetu Singh from DBS, hired as head of global corporate sales.