With the announced retirement of Nofal Barbar, William (Bill) Playle has been appointed chief executive officer of ABC International Bank.

Bill has worked at ABCIB since May 2002 and was formerly Deputy CEO of the bank, having previously served also as the bank’s head of risk management. Prior to joining ABC, Bill held senior positions in business, risk and general management functions, primarily within the Barclays Group.

Paul Jennings and Alexander Ashton were appointed joint deputy chief executive officers of ABCIB.

Alexander has been the general manager of the bank’s Paris branch since joining ABCIB in 2003 and was in senior management roles, both overseas and in UK, in Lloyds Banking Group before joining the bank.

The European branch general managers will report to Alexander, as well as many of the support functions.

Alexander will also act as the CEO as and when required due to any absence of the CEO.

Paul Jennings is currently, and will remain, the head of global trade finance for ABC Group in addition to his new duties as deputy CEO of ABCIB.

Since joining ABCIB in 1999, Paul has successfully transformed the Trade Finance business enabling ABC Group to be recognized as a ‘market leader’ in this field.

Before joining ABCIB, Paul enjoyed a successful track record in senior business roles with a number of financial institutions.

As joint deputy CEO, Paul’s responsibilities now extend to all of ABCIB’s business lines, adding project and structured finance and Islamic banking to trade finance.