About

Banco de la Nación is the largest state bank in Peru, and represents the Peruvian state in commercial transactions in the public and private sectors, both nationally and internationally. Contemporaries praised the Bank’s legal team for its central role in the Bank’s presence throughout the country. ‘The legal team of the Banco de la Nación is very integrated, stands out for its quality and legal efficiency to solve the various problems the Bank faces and substantially reduces its contingencies. [It has] a consolidated knowledge of the market and an excellent view of their legal position’, says one nominator. Composed of 44 lawyers, the legal team is composed of four large areas; a financial legal consulting area, led by Gina Granadino Salazar, an administrative legal consulting area led by Mara Rodríguez Cuadros, a compliance area led by María Consuelo Bussalleu Vargas-Quintanilla and a litigation area led by Héctor Rodríguez Mundaca. The four chiefs inform the general counsel, Juan Carlos Bustamante Gonzales, who has impressed his colleagues with his ability to lead the management of complex, high value affairs. ‘We were impressed by the solvency and leadership of Juan Carlos Bustamante to lead not only his internal staff, the legal team, but also the way he coordinated and aligned the other areas of the Bank’ says a nominating source. Each legal head is responsible for the management of legal risks in each of its areas of action and in the particular case of María Consuelo Bussalleu, supports the general counsel in the management of compliance throughout the company. The legal department is highly committed to integrity in the provision of its services to the entire organisation, and seeks to carefully select team members based on its ethical culture, but also encourages regular training on issues related to ethics and compliance. In recent years, the legal team has been growing and changing its structure to provide legal support in an increasingly efficient and streamlined way, as a part of that change, assuming the role of compliance and the secretariat of the board. ‘This has meant an important empowerment for the role that the legal team already had within the company’ says Bustamante. Most recently, the team has structured and mitigated contractual and legal risks in the construction of the new institutional headquarters, the tallest building in Peru, for more than US$100m, as well as the sale of the former institutional headquarters for more than US$30m.