ABN Amro has made a senior appointment within its Asian corporate finance business for global energy, commodities and transportation (ECT) clients.

The bank’s recently-launched ECT clients business will be based in Singapore and ABN Amro has appointed Arjan van Rijn as head of ECT clients, Asia. He has helped to rebuild ABN Amro’s corporate banking franchise in the Netherlands and has worked at Citigroup, Deutsche Bank, and ABN Amro.

“ABN Amro has a very long heritage in Asia and is a trusted banking partner for energy, commodities and shipping companies in the region,” says Maureen DeRooij, country executive for greater China and CEO of wholesale banking, Asia. “We believe the time is right to expand our advisory capabilities, to further harness our sector expertise and global footprint for these clients.”

ABN Amro has also relocated Stefan Ras, a senior energy banker, to Singapore to support the new operations. Last year, the bank headhunted Jan-Maarten Mulder, former global head of corporate finance and treasury at Trafigura, as global head of commodities.

Joreon Westrik, the ex-head of energy and resources at RBS, was also hired earlier this year to lead the ECT senior origination team.
The bank’s wholesale banking offering for Asian clients now includes loan syndications, debt capital markets, acquisition finance, structured finance and project finance.