Japanese lender SMBC has appointed Tancrede Carpenter as head of trade finance in France.

Carpenter, who took up the position in October, joins from Wells Fargo in London, where he was senior vice president and head of corporate trade sales.

At SMBC he will report to Yawar Mazhar, head of EU receivables finance, and to Guillaume Dufour, head of SMBC EU’s Paris branch.

Carpenter tells GTR: “I am delighted to join SMBC’s very well-established global trade and finance department in Paris. SMBC’s long standing commitment to the global trade finance business, the breadth and depth of client relationships as well as the regular investment in digitalisation solutions makes this a unique opportunity to further penetrate the French, Belgian and Luxembourg SMBC client base.”

Prior to joining Wells Fargo in 2014, Carpenter spent just over nine years at JP Morgan in France and Italy.

To celebrate his return to Paris, Carpenter made the journey from London by bicycle.