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

Recently I have been involved in multiple significant cases related to Columbia, which are of public knowledge. One of them is the agreement between Visa and The Walt Disney Company, aimed at providing cardholders in Colombia and Latin America with up to four months’ gift of a Disney+ subscription.

Another case worth mentioning is the partnership with Unión Temporal de Recaudo and Technology to enable contactless payments in Cali’s transportation system, MIO.
We have also partnered with Credibanco to implement and launch the Person Person- P2P transfer programme “PaGo”.

I have also partnered with Rappi to offer debit cards in Colombia, Mexico and Brazil.

Moreover, Visa has partnered with financial institutions and fintechs’ key merchants in Colombia and the Andean region, such as Nequi, Dale, Banco de Bogota, Leal, LifeMiles, and Bancolombia, among others.

Lastly, I have actively participated in the discussions with the Ministry of Finance on the regulation for low-value payment systems in Colombia that ended with the issuance of Decree 1692.

What will be the main focus for the company in the next 12 months and how do you intend to assist with this?

Visa is focused on developing three pillars: consumer payments, new flows and value-added services.

As part of consumer payments, Visa seeks opportunities to displace cash and promote financial inclusion and access to Visa’s network. To assist Visa on this objective, I plan to: (i) continue delivering best-in-class support to the business teams on strategic legal challenges triggered in the negotiation and execution of partnerships, client agreements, acquisition of technology, and new initiatives; (ii) provide legal support in the projects that aim for the promotion of financial inclusion, such as contactless payments in mass transportation systems; and (iii) in general, design and implement legal agreements and instruments to accelerate and facilitate the access to Visa’s network of crypto players, fintech, wallet providers and all other nuance entrants.

On the new payment flows, which include the enhancement of Visa’s technologies to facilitate payments Business to Business (B2B), Business to Consumer (B2C) and Government to Consumer (G2C), I’ll be assisting the different businesses in the design, implementation and negotiation of partnerships with wallets, firms and governments to develop these use cases in Colombia and the Andean Region.

Finally, moving to the services provided by Visa to its partners, including consulting, marketing services, and “Value Added Services”, I’ll be supporting the teams in negotiating and implementing the agreements to provide these services.

If you had to give advice to an aspiring in-house lawyer or general counsel, what would it be and why?

When you face a legal problem, always consider the business perspective and approach to provide your legal solution. Also, the most complicated legal challenges tend to be solved with practical, reasonable, and logical legal solutions. Be practical and think about the business, and you will succeed.