HSBC has appointed Ian Tandy as its second Asia Pacific co-head of global trade and receivables finance (GTRF), as the bank ramps up its focus on the region.

Tandy joined HSBC from RBS in 2008 as UK head of trade and supply chain, prior to becoming regional director of business banking in the south and east of England and then co-head of corporate banking for the London region. Since 2017, he has headed up the bank’s trade business in the country as managing director of GTRF UK.

Now based in Singapore, in his new position he reports jointly to Amanda Murphy, head of commercial banking for South and Southeast Asia, and Vivek Ramachandran, who took the reins of the GTRF business in May 2022.

The move comes following a strategic decision by the bank earlier this year to reorganise its GTRF leadership in the Asia Pacific region with the creation of the co-head roles. In a memo at the time, Ramachandran said this reflected “the scale of our business in the region, and our desire to enable a deeper focus on Asia as a strategically important region for our bank”.

The appointment of the first co-head, Aditya Gahlaut, was announced in January. Based in Hong Kong, Gahlaut also continues to hold his responsibilities as head of GTRF for Hong Kong and Macau.

Ajay Sharma, who has led the Asia GTRF business since 2016 and has held the second co-head role on an interim basis during the bank’s recruitment process, has now left GTRF, moving to a new role as HSBC’s head of commercial banking for India.