Ratings agency ARC Ratings has hired Jason Barrass as its new chief commercial officer, based in London.

Barrass starts on April 7 and will be responsible for driving commercialisation, managing client relationships and providing subject matter expertise in structured finance to the firm’s clients.

He joins from HSBC, where he spent the past four years as regional head of product for the Menat region, based in Dubai.

He took on that role in 2017 after four years at Barclays, where he ran the trade business from an end-to-end perspective for the bank’s various entities in Africa. This included managing sales, products, as well as structured trade and financial institution relationships.

Prior to this, he served as regional head of trade sales at JP Morgan for roughly 10 years.

Speaking about his new role, Barrass tells GTR: “By understanding the trade finance asset classes in detail, we can provide honest and reliable ratings for the industry in general. There have been noticeable examples recently which highlight the need for a different approach when looking at some asset categories and this is where ARC truly adds value.”

“With balance sheet restrictions faced by banks, securitisation will become increasing relevant to financial institutions s and alternative funders. Providing the comfort to investors is key and ARC’s specialisation will help in this process,” he adds.