What are the most significant cases or transactions that your legal team has recently been involved in?

As announced by Citi’s CEO in 2022, Citi is divesting the consumer and commercial businesses in Mexico. Since then, we have been working on separating our operations into two banks. Citibanamex is one of the biggest banks in Mexico and the divestiture of a bank this big is unprecedented, this means most of the legal team is involved to some extent in the process, which has brought an amazing learning opportunity. We are working on the transactional side of the divestiture, for example, advising on how and when to notify the clients, determining if any consents are needed from counterparties and obtaining them, executing new agreements with providers, advising on any changes to credit and services agreements for the new bank and what to do with the products and services that will no longer be available after the divestiture.

In addition, we are still responsible for our business-as-usual transactions, which in the last year have included credit agreements, capital markets transactions and advising our business teams in various matters. A relevant one, was a syndicated loan where the borrower here in Mexico was a subsidiary of Citi’s client in Brazil and we cooperated between jurisdictions to offer the best deal to our client, capitalizing on Citi’s global presence.

Could you share an example of a time when you came up with an innovation that improved how your legal team works and did not come at a large expense?  

I believe that the biggest benefit that has come from my innovative thinking is a change in how we interact with our internal clients and other support areas.

As in-house counsel, my primary clients are our business teams. Interestingly, when I first joined Citibanamex we did not work well together, they thought we were too rigid, and we thought they were careless and would do anything for a commission. In time and inspired by my former boss, I realized that even though we did not get a commission, we needed our business teams to thrive for the bank to perform better. This led to a change in how I addressed our business teams, I started to ask questions about transactions and to interact more deeply with other support areas, instead of limiting it to legal matters. This helped me to provide legal solutions that were better suited to business needs. Today, we are real partners in our business areas, we are consulted to get solutions in time instead of being avoided until the last minute, and though I cannot say it was all me, I am glad to have contributed to this change.

What is a cause, business related or otherwise, that you care about, and why? 

I am committed to creating better opportunities for women in business and financial law. When I went to law school, there were still teachers that would tell us that a law degree was not needed to be stay-at-home moms. And this was 2010, not 1950. I know we have come a long way, and I am proud to work in a company where the CEO of Citi and the general counsel of Citibanamex are women, but I believe we still have work to do to make sure this is no longer an exception and companies are commended for having great leaders irrespective of gender, and not for having women leading.