Stoehr had been with Credit Suisse for more than 25 years before its forced merger with rival UBS in March last year.

Most recently, he was the bank's CEO for the Greater China region, which covered investment banking, wealth and asset management.

SMBC is the main banking unit of Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group.

Stoehr will oversee SMBC's structured lending and private wealth businesses across the APAC region based in Singapore, the bank said in a statement.

He will report to SMBC's regional co-heads Yuichi Nishimura and Rajeev Kannan.

(Reporting by Scott Murdoch in Sydney; Editing by Varun H K)