Itaú Unibanco Holding SA named Federico Ravazzani head of its investment banking unit in Chile, Diario Financiero reported.

Ravazzani will replace Raúl Schmidt, who left the company this year.

Ravazzani is a senior adviser for Latin America at private equity firm L Catterton and was CEO for renewable energy company HydroChile. He also worked for banks including Banco Santander and Morgan Stanley.

Meanwhile, Itaú is on the lookout for a new investment banking director in Colombia after the departure of Marcel Patiño. Daniel Menéndez, Itaú head of investment banking in Peru, will also take the helm of the corporate banking division there.

Chile and Colombia are seeing an improving M&A landscape, with more than $1 billion in cross-border transactions on the horizon, according to Baruc Sáez, Itaú's director of investment and fixed-income banking for Latin America. M&A revenues for the bank could rise by 50% if these deals are closed, he added.