Olga Strekalova has been named as HSBC’s new director, project and export finance, global specialised finance division.

Strekalova joins from VTB, where she was most recently managing director, head of trade finance and forfaiting, covering the full scope of trade finance, forfaiting and structured finance products on behalf of the bank’s financial institutions and corporate customers.

She had been working in trade finance at VTB since 2002. She will report to Geoff Sharp, managing director, head of global specialised finance.