Team size: 36

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

In the last two years our legal team has been involved, in a US$1.1bn capital increase in Chile and in the US, including two pre-emptive right periods for common shares and American Depositary Shares, the alliance agreement with Rappi for the issuance of a co-branded credit card, the alliance with BNP Cardiff for the distribution of insurance products, the acquisition of the so-called MCC entities for the implementation of the new Private Banking division of Itaú Chile, and an unprecedented reverse split for our common shares and American Depositary Shares, to reduce the number of shares in which the capital of the Bank is divided.

Looking forward, what technological advancements do you feel will impact the role of in-house legal teams in the future the most? Which have you found most useful in your legal team?

Within banks we have to review and approve our clients’ corporate documents, including authorisations and powers of attorney. This is a massive and key process for our wholesale units and their daily operations with their companies and clients. The use and implementation of robotics has proven critical to reduce the time taken to open new accounts and approve new corporate documents, it has also significantly reduced costs in these legal processes. We have reduced approval times for corporate documents from days down to hours. The willingness to improve legal processes by implementing new technologies is a change of mindset that we have pushed successfully at Itaú Chile.

In general, what would you like to see change about the external law firms you use? Examples could be greater flexibility in billing, a more expansive suite of services offered, more transparency in reporting ESG statistics etc.

I believe that external law firms should be partners with their clients in the search for efficiency, cost savings and improvement of the legal processes in which they are involved. They are in a position to contribute more to their clients than just excellence in legal advice, which is indeed the basis of their relationship. External law firms bring expertise that go beyond a specific client.