Wachovia has expanded its Global Trade Services (GTS) team with the hiring of three industry experts with a blend of technology, business, and trade expertise.

Steve Anderson joins in New York as manager of product planning and support, part of the trade product management team. He comes to Wachovia from Misys, where he led its trade platform development and sales effort.

In his new role, Anderson will be responsible for spearheading design and development of Wachovia’s next generation proprietary trade platform.

“After 22 years in the software industry, I was excited by the opportunity to join a leading global trade bank actively investing in proprietary trade platform solutions to support both its corporate and financial institution client base,” he says. “We expect the demand for trade outsourcing services to markedly increase. Wachovia intends to build upon its market leadership in this field as the bank expands its offering of ASP based product offerings.”

Tim House joins Wachovia from TradeBeam where, over the past six years, he was involved in successfully establishing this start-up as a leading global trade management company. House is an expert in both physical and financial supply chain flows and will lead Wachovia’s trade supply chain solution efforts.

“Banks are logically at the centre of the financial supply chain process,” says House. “As one of the largest trade processing banks in the world, Wachovia is in a unique position to introduce and facilitate the adoption of SCF products and solutions to its global client base. I look forward to being a catalyst for this effort.”

Richard Lightbound re-joins Wachovia having spent seven years with the supply chain management company, TradeCard, where he worked extensively in establishing supply chain networks in Europe and Asia.

Lightbound will support Wachovia’s financial institution trade efforts from Hong Kong. “Wachovia has the products, vision, capital and most importantly the clients to successfully affect change in the traditional trade settlement process,” he claims. “By introducing new products and services to our existing corporate and financial institution clients my work will have an immediate impact in creating efficiencies and value. This is an exciting time for me and Wachovia’s Global Trade Services group.”

“These hires reflect the new realities of the trade services business,” says Steven Nichols, managing director and head of Global Trade Services at Wachovia. “Global trade is an increasingly important component of world GDP; however, banks captive to traditional letter of credit processing models will find themselves challenged to grow revenues. The new business model is all about creating value in the financial supply chain. Wachovia has the products and the talent to capitalise on this opportunity.”