Re/insurance giant Swiss Re has launched its North American trade finance unit with a double appointment.

Basil Louvaris (pictured) has joined the firm’s global trade finance team as a senior underwriter and lead for the North America region.

Starting the role with immediate effect, he reports to the re/insurer’s global head of trade finance, Marilyn Blattner-Hoyle.

Swiss Re has also named Avni Scerbo as a trade finance underwriting analyst, reporting to Swiss Re’s operations manager for credit and surety North America, Maria Athey.

“With these hires, we are proud to launch trade finance in North America. We look forward to serving clients and brokers with this new on the ground presence,” says Blattner-Hoyle in a LinkedIn statement.

“Basil will take ownership of the NA TF [North America trade finance] business and profitable growth strategy. Avni will take ownership of the end-to-end TF NA operations success,” she adds.

Louvaris will remain in New York, where he has served as underwriting manager on the Euler Hermes transactional cover unit for the past six years. Prior to this, he worked as a political risk manager at C.V. Starr and Chubb.

Scerbo, who joined Swiss Re in 2017, moves from her previous senior underwriting associate post on the North America surety operations team. She is based in Illinois.