Deutsche Bank is strengthening its operations in the Asia Pacific region with two senior hires in its Singapore office, as the Frankfurt-headquartered institution vows to take its trade finance offerings “to the next level”.

Chintan Shah has been appointed head of cash management and will continue to be based in Deutsche’s Singapore office.

With over 16 years at the bank, Shah was most recently managing director and regional head of cash products and client connectivity for APAC, and prior to that was head of trade finance and cash management for corporates in Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia.

Shah will report to David Lynne, head of corporate bank for the Asia Pacific region, and Ole Mattiessen, the bank’s global head of cash management.

He replaces Suman Chaki, who will retain his existing role as Deutsche’s global head of cash structuring but is relocating to New York to take up the additional post of head of corporate cash sales.

Lynne, who also took on the role of global head of transaction banking APAC in 2018, says Shah is expected to help the bank take advantage of “the opportunities presented by the outbound corridor to other regions”.

He adds: “Strengthening our set-up in the Asia Pacific region is a must in order to ensure we deliver holistic solutions to our clients worldwide.”

Meanwhile, Sebastien Avot has been appointed Deutsche’s new head of trade finance for financial institutions across APAC, and will also take up the post of head of distribution and credit solutions.

Avot was previously overseeing Deutsche Bank’s distribution operations in the Middle East and Africa, having initially joined in 2010 in a London-based role. He has already started in the new position but will not relocate to Singapore from Dubai until the second half of the year.

Locally he will report to Atul Jain, regional head of trade and lending for Asia Pacific, while globally he will report to Guy Brooks, global head of distribution and credit, and to Russell Brown, global head of trade finance for financial institutions.

Brooks says the appointment of Avot will help the bank “explore alternative ways of de-risking our trade finance business”.

Avot adds he intends to take “both distribution and credit solutions and trade finance for financial institutions to the next level in the APAC region”. His replacement has not yet been announced.