Team size: 24

How do you approach managing legal aspects during periods of instability or crises, and how does your legal strategy align with the broader business strategy to ensure the organisation’s resilience?

As part of the leadership of Interbank´s legal and corporate affairs team, we have successfully handled periods of instability and crisis, such as the Covid-19 pandemic. This experience showcased the exceptional collaboration and problem-solving abilities of our team in a high-pressure environment.

It is crucial to maintain focus on the key objectives of the businesses we serve, and as such, we closely align our teams with the clients’ goals and actively participate in their planning and town hall meetings. Following debriefing sessions with our teams, we identify the key priorities, enabling us to deliver timely legal advice, aligned with each priority.

In addition, we conduct more comprehensive check-in meetings with each team to communicate core initiatives and engage in discussions on key focal points. This practice ensures that our entire team is well-informed and aligned with our immediate business goals. It also allows us to collectively identify legal risks raised from current or proposed new regulation, enhancing our proactive approach to legal advice.

Given the scope of my role, which involves engagement with all products and services provided by the bank (retail, payments, capital markets and commercial, among others), effective communication with my direct reports and team members is key. It is essential to discuss complex legal challenges and actively foster a collaborative environment that encourages sharing knowledge and experiences (precedents) with the team.

Finally, it is important to emphasise that our teams do not only have legal expertise, which we expect to keep updated continually; we have also implemented a comprehensive training program, which includes digital, data and soft skills courses, empowering our teams to approach client interactions proactively, collaboratively, and empathetically. This mindset enables us to provide timely legal counsel and thorough risk-management assessment, which is key during crisis situations.

What emerging technologies do you see as having the most significant impact on the legal profession in the near future, and how do you stay updated on these developments?

Our commitment lies in working collaboratively with product and commercial teams to design digital journeys that fulfil our clients’ financial needs, by providing legal advice from the early stages of such initiatives. For this purpose, it has been key to continually enhance our mindset with digital, data, and soft skills before the implementation of any particular technology on our processes. This approach prioritizes efficiency, particularly in light of the increase in new initiatives.

In collaboration with the innovation team, we have been working to identify repetitive processes and assess the potential for automation or the adoption of technology, which could allow us to free up valuable time directing our focus towards our clients’ core initiatives, and help us to improve data analytics, actionable insights, and the creation of metrics to support efficient and data-driven solutions. Also, by identifying bottlenecks, we can propose alternative solutions, including drafting new templates, Q&A guides, training videos covering legal concepts and self-service tools.

Furthermore, recognising the rapid pace of technology, with the guidance of the innovation team, we are exploring the integration of AI in certain processes. This initiative aims to minimise our team’s involvement in high volume, low legal risk tasks and potentially reduce provisions mandated by banking regulations