Corridors in focus: Our People – Sonia Wentzel

“Building bridges between East and West isn’t just my job, it’s my purpose,” states Sonia Wentzel, Head, CIB International Corporates.

15 April 2026

5 mins

Corporate & investment bankingFinancial institutions and investor groupsTrade corridors

Corridors in focus: Our people. In this video series, we feature the enablers from Corporate & Investment Banking (CIB) who play a crucial role in supporting the growth of our clients’ businesses across multiple markets. This month, we spotlight Frankfurt-based Sonia Wentzel, who is responsible for facilitating the expansion of European companies across Asia.

Watch the video below to learn more about Sonia’s story.

From her early days in China to advising clients across Europe and Asia today, Sonia’s journey is a story of how relationships – built over time – shape cross-border success.

Cross-border deals are rarely straightforward. It is not just about capital. It’s about how decisions are made and how trust is built. That challenge is becoming more relevant than ever.

As companies pursue cross-border expansion strategies, flows between Europe and Asia continue to grow – driven by supply chain shifts, investment diversification and new growth priorities.

Learning China — beyond the market

Early in her career, Sonia spent several years in China.

It was a period that shaped how she approaches her role as a corridor banker today.

“Those years weren’t just about learning a market,” she reflects. “They were about understanding how businesses think, how relationships are built differently and why they matter so much.”

Working closely with Chinese clients who were expanding globally, she saw how trust was built over time.

Trust takes time. The best deals are built over many conversations – not just one meeting.

Sonia Wentzel

Head, CIB International Corporates

Bringing that perspective back to Europe

When Sonia returned to Germany, her role took on a different dimension.

She wasn’t just bringing knowledge of China.

She was bringing the ability to bridge markets – connecting different regulatory environments business cultures and operating models.

Today, she works at the intersection of Europe and Asia — helping clients navigate regulatory complexity across multiple markets.

Europe remains one of the world’s largest pools of institutional capital, while Asia continues to account for a growing share of global trade, manufacturing and digital activity.

Connecting these two regions is no longer a simple matter of cross-border flows.

It requires financial infrastructure and insight that can bridge regulatory regimes, time zones, currencies and operating models, often simultaneously.

Each corridor comes with its own dynamics and cultural expectations – that’s where we come in as corridor bankers.

Sonia Wentzel

Head, CIB International Corporates

A corridor that flows both ways

For Sonia, the Europe–Asia corridor is not a one-way story.

German and European clients are looking east towards Asia’s growth markets, while at the same time, Asian companies are expanding west into Europe, building presence and acquiring capabilities.

“We also support global and Asian clients investing, operating and growing in Europe,” she adds.

India is one of the clearest examples.

“India, in particular, is becoming a global powerhouse, creating new opportunities for European companies looking to diversify supply chains and scale into high-growth markets.”

But entering a new market is only the first step. Understanding how to operate in it is where the real work begins.

Making complexity navigable

Sonia’s legal background continues to shape how she approaches these challenges, particularly given that cross-border banking is rarely straightforward.

Each market comes with its own:

• Regulatory landscape
• Cultural context
• Commercial expectations

Clients are often navigating multiple jurisdictions at once – with decisions that carry significant weight.

What they need is not just information. They need clarity.

In practice, this means helping clients enter new markets faster, structuring cross-border transactions more effectively, and managing regulatory risk with greater certainty.

Why corridor banking matters

In today’s environment, access is no longer enough. What clients need is the ability and clarity to operate with confidence across markets.

Corridor banking supports clients as they expand, invest and operate across connected markets — navigating regulatory, cultural and financial complexity across borders.

Few banks combine deep local presence across both regions with the ability to connect them in practice – and that’s where Standard Chartered makes a difference.

This requires not just a presence in both markets, but a network that connects them seamlessly – on the ground and across borders.

It requires anticipating complexity before it arises, moving at the right pace — not just being the fastest, and aligning stakeholders across geographies, cultures and expectations.

This is because increasingly, competitive advantage lies not in where you operate, but in how well one connects those markets together.

More than a transaction

Ask Sonia what defines her role, and she doesn’t start with deals.

She starts with relationships: the conversations that happen before a mandate and the alignment that happens behind the scenes.

That’s what allows clients to move forward with confidence.

And that’s what makes the difference when it matters most.

Building bridges that last

Two decades on, Sonia is still solving complex problems but just in a different way.

She helps clients move between many systems instead of working within just the one, across Europe and Asia, and across a mix of cultures, expectations and markets that operate in different ways.

In cross-border banking, success is not defined by access alone but by how well a partner bank understands – and connects – both sides.