David Renwick has been tasked with running both global finance and trade for Barclays Africa, bringing the two businesses within one group for the first time.

The bank’s global finance business incorporates its long-term finance activities: project, resource and acquisition finance, as well as debt capital markets and vanilla debt (both investment-grade and sub-investment-grade).

Renwick tells GTR that the bank took the decision this year to bring its Africa-focused global finance business together with its trade capabilities (which includes vanilla flow and structured trade and commodity finance) under one roof.

Within this new framework, he says the bank will “maximise on opportunities in the market that may have been missed by not being more closely aligned in the past”.

As an example, he explains, the bank has historically been successful in the development of renewable energy plants in Southern Africa, but that it has traditionally not taken full advantage of the structured trade opportunities linked to these deals. The aim now is to bring these two businesses closer together.

“There’s a real opportunity to start to compete with the more heavy-weight actors and trade finance houses in the region,” he says.

Renwick has been with Barclays Africa for the last five years and before that held positions at Investec in the UK and Standard Bank in South Africa, covering all aspects of long and short-term finance. His new title is head of global finance and trade at Barclays Africa.

He tells GTR that more changes within the trade team will be announced shortly as the bank realigns and brings new leadership to its structured trade and vanilla flow businesses.

Renwick replaces Jason Barrass, who was previously head of Africa trade at Barclays Africa, but who recently left the bank.