Adnan Ghani is to join Westpac as head of trade finance from October 4.

The experienced trade banker joins from Commonwealth Bank of Australia, where he spent three years as head of trade, based in Sydney.

Prior to this he was global head of trade at RBS in London, having held a similar role at ABN Amro, where he worked from 1996 to 2008.

Ghani has chaired BAFT’s Global Trade Industry Council and been a member of the expert’s panel on trade at the WTO. At Westpac, he will be responsible for the sales, product and risk portfolio management functions of the bank’s international trade finance business.

Gerry Gannon had been acting global head of trade finance, corporate and institutional banking since February of this year. Ghani will assume these responsibilities, and it is understood that Gannon will remain with Westpac in an another capacity.