SINGAPORE - Barclays has appointed investment banking veteran Ee-Ching Tay as its new head of South-east Asia banking.

She will be in charge of further growing the bank's franchise in the region, with a focus on driving mergers and acquisitions (M&A) advisory and financing.

"In particular, she will lead and cultivate our most senior client relationships and manage the team covering key corporate clients, financial institutions, financial sponsors and government agencies in the region," said the British lender in a statement on Monday (June 21).

Ms Tay has more than 20 years of experience in investment banking in the United States and Asia.

She was managing director and head of South-east Asia M&A at JP Morgan in Singapore for a decade and executive director in the M&A team at UBS in New York prior to that.

"Ms Tay brings an impressive deal track record in M&A and capital raisings worth over US$100 billion (S$135 billion) spanning a wide range of sectors," said Barclays.

She takes over from Mr Sandeep Pahwa, who has led Barclays' South-east Asia banking business since November 2010 and will continue to serve as the bank's vice-chairman and head of Asia-Pacific client coverage.

Ms Tay will report to Ms Vanessa Koo, who heads Barclays' Asia-Pacific and Greater China banking business.

South-east Asia is strategically important to the bank as a dynamic high-growth region, said Ms Koo.

She added: "Ee-Ching's extensive transactional expertise and deep local knowledge will bring substantial value to our clients. We would also like to extend our thanks to Sandeep for building a solid South-east Asia banking franchise over the past decade."