About

Since 2000, Davina Saint has served as general counsel and head of legal responsible for the legal team at BNP Paribas Group in Ireland, covering the team’s framework, corporate governance and transactional oversight for BNP Paribas’ companies and operations in the country. The team covers all legal matters related to the corporate investment bank, structured capital markets, global markets, funds activity, prime brokerage and global trade and supply chain businesses overseeing 45 companies and an Irish balance sheet for the group in excess of €50bn. Previously, Saint held an in-house legal counsel at LeasePlan, and was solicitor at Sinclair Roche & Temperly from 1989 to 1995. She is an experienced general counsel with 18 years of experience at BNP Paribas in Ireland and is accompanied in the team by Nicola Curry, a solicitor serving as the deputy head of legal. Other notable team members include solicitors Maurice Moynihan, Sean Groeger and Laura Carthy, legal executives Deirdre Scott and Susan Reynolds and permanent control assistant Gabrielle Macmanus. Saint describes the team’s success and its capable handling of the changing financial situation in Ireland: ‘We have seen an enormous expansion in our business here in Ireland having become a hub for a number of business lines, including fund of hedge fund lending and the bank’s global trade solutions business. We are running an €8bn platform of Payables and Receivables that have been built here organically and all on-boarded by the Dublin legal team’. The team has expanded and worked together to create a best in class governance and regulatory framework to protect business interests, while also being a facilitator to the growth of the business. Saint identifies that the increasing speed of regulatory changes from new legislation has challenged the team this year and it has been difficult to handle these changes while keeping up business as usual, which Saint describes as being handled with ‘class’.