How do you approach managing legal aspects during periods of instability or crises, and how does your legal strategy align with the broader business strategy to ensure the organisation’s resilience?  

The legal department needs to be the rock of an organisation, even more so during periods of instability or crises when it is crucial to have robust internal legal processes which are reliable to navigate immediate challenges successfully. A collaborative alignment and pro-active communication with business and strategy units as well as the other support domains to understand their goals and challenges is essential for ensuring that legal strategies support and enhance the overall business objectives. We thereby also ensure that legal considerations are integrated seamlessly into business decisions, allowing for timely and relevant advice that supports the organisation’s goals.

The legal department must function as a transparent and effective service provider and trusted advisor. Additionally, we strive to stay ahead by anticipating legal risks and challenges and by closely monitoring the legal environment in other jurisdictions to prepare for potential issues that could impact the local organisation.

What are the main cases or transactions that you have been involved in recently?  

We support for example in the further development of our Business Banking domain and were deeply involved in the launch of a savings account specifically designed for SME clients. Additionally, a current account for SME clients was recently introduced as part of the suite of Business Banking services.

With our legal houses initiative, we have organised many events across all legal teams at ING Germany in order to reduce silos and to engage our legal teams during times of working from home or abroad. It focused on fostering collaboration and ensuring that legal teams remain connected and effective despite physical distances. The initiative met with widespread approval in Germany and has since been adopted by legal departments in other countries.

How have you integrated technology into your legal processes, and what impact has this had on efficiency and compliance?

We use a broad set of modern tools to enhance our legal processes and have recently developed our own vendor management tool to monitor our legal spent and to be able to provide detailed reports. Additionally, we use SharePoints for document management and collaboration and digital Kanban boards for project management and hybrid meetings to facilitate communication and coordination across different locations.

In an increasingly complex regulatory environment, embracing modern tools like generative AI is essential in our view. We are therefore pro-actively implementing these technologies to enhance the efficiency and quality of our legal services, such as by analysing large volumes of regulatory information more effectively. We have started pilot testing Microsoft Copilot in the legal department to identify use cases that will support our team in the daily work and we are developing an internal governance for the use of generative AI. These tools have collectively improved our operational efficiency and compliance, enabling us to deliver high-quality legal services in a timely and effective manner.

Furthermore, in collaboration with our compliance department, we have developed an advertising checker tool to support our business teams and to make their lives easier against the background of a world that is spinning faster and faster and a regulatory landscape that is becoming more and more complex. What role does the legal department play in promoting and ensuring corporate social responsibility in your organisation?

We aim to be role models in our behaviour for promoting and ensuring corporate social responsibility within our organisation.

One of our key initiatives is co-heading the DIB (Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging) Council at ING Germany which facilitates an inclusive working environment through various activities such as unconscious bias workshops, LGBTIQ+ awareness trainings and events specifically for female colleagues. Our goal is to achieve a female-to-male ratio of 50:50 within the legal department.

Additionally, we support the Tafel in Frankfurt, a local food bank which helps those in need. We also limit our travel, avoiding flights whenever possible to reduce CO2 emissions.

What do you see as the major legal challenges for businesses in Germany over the next five years, and how are you preparing to address them?

One of the major legal challenges for businesses in Germany over the next five years is the increasingly complex regulatory environment. As regulations continue to evolve, monitoring legal developments will become more and more challenging, highlighting the need for AI-supported processes.