Société Générale has announced that Stephen Swift will be its new head of global finance, from the beginning of 2017.

He replaces Sadia Ricke, who will become chief country officer for the UK on 1 January 2017. Swift will report to Hikaru Ogata, CEO Asia Pacific, and Pierre Palmieri, global head of finance. He will be based in Hong Kong.

The global finance business includes structured financing, debt capital markets, syndication and advisory services.

Swift has been with Société Générale since 1987, when he joined from Williams and Glyn Bank, now part of the RBS Group. Shortly after, he moved to Paris to launch the bank’s leveraged finance business for Continental Europe excluding France.

He managed the syndication team in Paris from 1997 and moved to London in 2006 to run the European loan syndication business. In 2008 he was named global head of leveraged finance and non-investment grade origination, before being promoted to deputy head of global syndicate in 2015, responsible for the banks loans and bonds business.