Online share trading company Bell Direct has appointed former Commonwealth Bank executive Arnie Selvarajah as its new chief executive officer.

The executive chairman of the Bell Financial Group, which holds 25 per cent of Bell Direct, Colin Bell, said Selvarajah would take up his new role today.

He was most recently the head of local business banking with the Commonwealth Bank in NSW and the ACT and prior to that was an executive manager with CommSec.