George Wilson

George Wilson has spent more than 25 years in law and banking, most of them in emerging-market and African trade finance.

He was called to the Bar at Middle Temple in 1996 and practised from chambers at 1 Gray's Inn Square in London. He then moved into regulatory law and compliance at Credit Suisse First Boston and Barclays Capital. In 2005 he went to Johannesburg to lead compliance on Barclays' acquisition of Absa.

From 2006 to 2009 he worked in Hong Kong. At UBS he was head of fixed income compliance and regulation for Asia. He then ran operations for the Asian credit trading and structuring business at Lehman Brothers and, after the 2008 crisis, at Nomura.

He returned to South Africa in 2010 and moved into trade finance at Absa. He led trade for financial institutions across Africa, then institutional trade finance, and founded the Absa Africa Trade Hub. In 2021 he joined Investec as head of institutional trade finance and built the business with his team.

Since July 2025 he has been Chief Executive Officer of the ARM Africa Trade Development Fund, based in Mauritius. His consulting company, Africa Trade Finance Consultancy, is based in Johannesburg.

He writes and speaks regularly on the African trade finance gap, dollar liquidity, the regulation of trade and what sustainability means for African trade.