Germany’s DZ Bank has hired Ralph Lerch as senior vice-president in its international trade and export finance team.

Lerch joins DZ Bank with over 25 years of experience in export finance. He was most recently global head of export and agency finance at Commerzbank.

Based at the bank’s headquarters in Frankfurt, Lerch will report to Winfried Münch, global head of trade and export finance. The bank says that Lerch will “contribute to DZ Bank’s targets to grow internationally by supporting the firm’s activities in export finance and receivables management”.

Before his time with Commerzbank, which he joined in 2009, he also led the export finance team of Landesbank Berlin.

Lerch rescinds his title of chairman of the export credit working group at the European Banking Federation (EBF), a representative body for national banking associations based in Brussels.