About

Julio Reyes first encountered Banco de la Produccion (BANPRO) in 2000 when he was hired by the board in charge of liquidating the assets from Banco Intercontinental and assisted its lawyers in recovering collateral. Parts of the assets and liabilities were sold to BANPRO, which did not have a legal department at the time, and Reyes moved with them to join as legal adviser. By 2005 he was named legal coordinator and hired two more lawyers with the aim of providing legal services to other banks in a region where almost 80% of legal requirements were being covered by external law firms. He now has 20 lawyers and six administrative assistants that report into him. Recognised for his dedication to the department and for his grand vision of helping expand the team into a profit centre, in 2009 the board of directors appointed him as legal manager. ‘I had the responsibility to build up a competitive legal department in order to improve response time with clients, decrease high expenses in legal fees and become a source of income for the bank by providing services for internal and external clients’, says Reyes. He has also played a lead role in coordinating a number of complex transactions, including negotiating the acquisitions of local banks such as BANIC, Calley Dagnall and HSBC Nicaragua. In order to reinforce the team, Reyes has launched initiatives to promote and instil cohesion within the workforce. ‘We use balance score-cards to evaluate our staff. We try to maintain fluid communication channels with our co-workers and focus on team work to give the best legal advice possible’. In March 2016, Reyes was appointed as secretary to the board of directors, offering further evidence of the confidence shareholders and senior management have in his performance at the company.