SMBC Americas has appointed Anne Marie Thurber as executive director and head of export and agency finance Americas, part of the bank’s global trade finance department.

She joins from Zurich, where she was executive vice-president of the global credit and political risk business for the past 15 years. Before that, she led the Latin America and the Caribbean political risk insurance team at the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (Miga) for over two years.

Her 25-year experience also includes six years as director of the Centre for Innovation in Social Entrepreneurship (CISE), as well as roles at the US Overseas Private Investment Corporation (Opic) and Skandia America Reinsurance.

Jonathan Joseph-Horne, global co-ordinator of export and agency finance in SMBC’s global trade finance department, says: “We are delighted that Anne Marie has joined SMBC. Her experience with the credit insurance markets and the multilateral agencies, as well as her leadership skills, will add further depth and breadth to our global export and agency finance offering and complements the client coverage of borrowers and exporters SMBC undertakes on a global basis.”

SMBC’s New York-based export and agency finance team is organised as follows: Rafael Cervantes manages marketing, Brad Dunderman, who recently joined from Motorola, leads the insurance placement team and Thurber, on top of her team head role, will lead the agency coverage team, in which Philip Janoff continues as senior coverage officer.