Key team members: Tran Ngoc Thuy, Huynh Thi Thu Thuy

Major legal advisers: Baker McKenzie, Allen & Overy, LNT & Partners, Vilaf, YKVN, Global Vietnam Lawyers

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

Our team greatly contributed to syndication deals created by Vietnam relationship managers. Our roles are not only as an in-house counsel but also as business partners that can provide insights on market practice and commercial inputs. In these deals, we worked closely with Vietnam and headquarter relationship managers, the credit risk team, and headquarters’ legal team, and external counsel to safely and efficiently carry out the deals done.

We successfully handled a non-performing loan or bad debt and supported our stakeholders to pursue private sale and litigation proceedings in parallel to put high pressure on the debtor. This has been a dynamic and strategic game considering many legal implications and difficulties in enforcement in Vietnam

Our team has been playing a key role in setting the footprint of the branch as it is now just expanding its operations in the Vietnam market in corporate and retail banking. The legal team has been very busy advising on daily domestic and cross border transactions, building templates, initiating innovative solutions, and coaching staff, among others.

Could you share an example of a time when you came up with an innovation that improved how your legal team works and did not come at a large expense?

Bad debt is typically handled by a debt collection team or by external counsel. However, considering the facts of the case and the practice of Vietnam legal proceedings, we persuaded the Vietnam Branch’s general manager, headquarter legal head, and headquarter asset management department to let us handle the case ourselves. It served as an opportunity for internal teams to learn how to collaborate and initiate, and be creative, dynamic, and strategic.

While handling the case, we prepared litigation documents submitted to Vietnamese competent courts. We also supported the business team in preparing and sending letters to the debtor highlighting that, among others, while were providing assistance in finding potential buyers of mortgaged assets, we were also taking the case to the competent court as permitted by law and by contract.

From primary stages till the completion of the case, the legal team took initiative and actively proposed solutions and actions for stakeholders to follow. Our contributions, guidance and support have been recognised locally and regionally.

Can you sum up the team culture or ethos?

We always encourage speaking up in our team. My team member can at any time share her views, point out my mistakes, and propose her solutions and ideas. We appreciate truthfulness, respect, and collaboration, and support to each team member, regardless of the position held.

Our legal team operates with a business supportive mindset. We never set a boundary for legal work only because legal professionals can do a lot more than just function within a very narrow legal framework. A business-legal mindset enables us to work with everyone in the organisation from different angles to ensure goals are successfully and efficiently achieved.

What steps do you take to ensure effective communication and collaboration with external counsel and other stakeholders during the dispute resolution process?

We take steps to let the external counsel know what the bank’s expectations are, its risk appetite, approaches, strategies, and internal parameters, if any. To further facilitate effective communication, it is also important to ask for the external counsel’s proposed strategies and rationale behind them, market practice, and practical viewpoints.