The Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) has made two appointments in its London branch.

Alan Sweeting has been appointed as senior vice-president of trade sales and Katie Achaibou will become vice-president of trade solutions.

The pair will support the overseas growth strategies of CBA’s institutional banking and markets and business and private banking divisions.

Sweeting joins CBA from Mizuho, where he held senior roles in its commodity trade finance team since 2007. Before that, he worked at ANZ Bank in London for four years as a senior relationship manager in commodity trade finance. In this role he was responsible for the relationship management of clients trading oil, steel and soft commodities.

Meanwhile, Achaibou joins CBA from FBN Bank in the UK, where she lead the middle office team managing a significant portfolio that included structured trade and commodity finance, project finance and forfaiting. Before joining FBN, she had over 18 years’ experience in trade and commodity related finance working at institutions such as HSH Nordbank, BTMU and the London Forfaiting Company.

Sweeting and Achaibou will initially focus on supporting the bank’s existing key relationships, before further expansion is made to add new clients to its portfolio, CBA confirms.