Brendan Du Preez has joined Equity Bank as its group director of trade finance. 

In his new role at the Nairobi-headquartered bank, Du Preez will be responsible for driving the strategic growth of Equity’s trade and working capital finance business. 

This includes “shaping sales, product and innovation across retail and corporate portfolios”, Du Preez said. 

Du Preez started the role on November 3 and reports to Gertrude Wamala Karugaba, the bank’s group chief legal and commercial officer. 

He joins the bank from Mashreq CIB, where he was senior vice-president and head of trade product in the lender’s global transaction banking team.  

Du Preez previously spent eight years at Standard Bank, where his last role was head of trade, core markets, and eight years at Standard Chartered, taking on roles including head of product management Southern Africa, transaction banking. 

He has also held roles at Barclays and Absa. 

Equity was originally founded as a building society in 1984 and was converted into a commercial bank in 2004.  

It was listed on the Nairobi Stock Exchange in 2006, and expanded into the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 2017 with its acquisition of ProCredit Bank Congo.