Traydstream, a trade finance fintech company, has recruited another banking executive, appointing Asif Ali as managing director of product.

Ali joins from Citi, where he worked for 18 years, most recently heading the trade business for the UAE, Iraq and Lebanon, as well as corporate trade sales for the Middle East and Pakistan.

Bringing in a senior banker with more than 23 years of trade experience is described by the fintech firm as “a significant addition to the team”. It is the second ex-Citi executive that Traydstream has attracted to its team, after having hired Sameer Sehgal, previously Citi’s head of trade for Europe, Middle East and Africa, as CEO last year.

Launched last year, Traydstream’s solution digitalises trade documents and automates regulatory compliance screening using artificial intelligence (AI) and optical character recognition (OCR) technology.

In a statement, Ali says his shift to fintech comes after having faced “first-hand the pain-points of manual dependence and the duplication of processes”, and seeing the huge potential of technology to automate back-end processes that underpin trade finance.

At Traydstream, he will manage and own the core product and compliance pillars, reporting directly to Sehgal. He will be based in Dubai.