Westpac hires more senior managers for Asian expansion

Continues to poach senior bankers from global competitors.

Australia’s Westpac Banking Corporation has named former J.P.Morgan managing director and head of treasury services for Greater China, David Koh, as its Asian head of corporate and institutional banking. He will be based in Singapore.

Koh was a managing director and head of global transaction banking at Deutsche Bank before he joined J.P.Morgan

Australia’s second-largest bank by market value has also hired Paul Gardner as global head of its structured commodity finance business. Gardner was formerly Deutsche Bank managing director and Asian head of structured trade and export finance.

Before joining Deutsche Bank, Gardner was a managing director and the Asian head of export, project and commodity finance at Royal Bank of Scotland.

The bank said these appointments reflect its deliberate strategy of focusing on the increasing trade, capital and people flows Asia.

Last month, Westpac also appointed Andrew Billing, as its head of Asian institutional FX sales. Billing was formerly Deutsche Bank’s Australasian head of FX sales.