Team size: 40

Could you share an example of a time when you came up with an innovation that improved the way your compliance team works and didn’t come at a huge cost?

The internal needs that arise in the organisation permanently require timely attention, so that agile responses can be allowed, without neglecting that they are supported under the legal framework that must be applied and that is of greater importance, in an environment of strict regulatory regulation, discordant to changes and technological innovations.

Faced with these challenges, Banco Solidario’s legal team has defined as its main objective, achieving internal bureaucratisation, reducing requirements, making formalisms more flexible and generating solutions that make clear, simple and uniform procedures viable, promoting legal service under quality standards and proactive attention. of the internal and external client under good practices that preserve regulatory compliance, through a reasonable and innovative interpretation.

During the 2022 and 2023 administrations, tools such as digital folders have been implemented for the filing and registration of documentation for quality control and the issuance of timely and accessible information, the use of the Office 365 platform for the definition of tasks, monitoring, control and evaluation of results. A collective effort has been made to improve internal regulations and standardise good practices by the legal team that advises at the national level. The participation of the members of the legal team under a participatory leadership has allowed the authentic commitment of each adviser to generate initiatives and proposals for improvement, with the fulfilment of the goals established in accordance with the strategic objectives of our Bank.

The innovative form of teamwork, under a conscious and participative leadership, has allowed the legal area to be visible within the entity based on the measurement of its management and the value contribution in the chain of internal services. Today the legal team is identified in the transformation process of our entity as an agent of change and value contribution for the generation of impact, both internally and with respect to our external clients.

What are some of the key developments (legal, geopolitical, or otherwise) that have affected your business over the past year?

The Bolivian financial market has been affected by the reduction in circulation of the American dollar, forcing economic agents to adapt to the consequences generated by the lack of liquidity of said currency. To this new scenario was added the speculation of a possible devaluation, resulting in a liquidity risk of the financial system, exacerbated with the intervention of the regulator in a financial entity that did not have the capacity to respond to the fulfilment of its passive obligations (deposits) in dollars and in local currency, among other causes.

In this context, our financial entity defined opportune and prudent actions in order to maintain solid liquidity and solvency, ratios that have given it the qualification of being the No. 1 Bank in the Bolivian market in the last seven years and that, despite the scenarios described above, it remained under the same standards and contributed to the stabilisation of the financial system.

How do you think the role of the in-house lawyers will evolve in the coming years?

The in-house legal role must generate initiatives that are in line with the digital transformation process that organisations have initiated and that demands from their areas, the agile and innovative response that makes it possible to meet the needs, from the perspective of the contribution of value and impact, in terms of providing tools that are aligned with the business strategy under a vision of sustainability.

Do you use any legal technology products, and if so, for which areas of your work do you find them most useful?

We use the Iudis Novus system that allows the registration of judicial processes from the demand and the follow-up in stages by external lawyers (approximately 6,500 processes). Also, the “El Guardian” computer system that records guarantee documents in the loan contract. Lastly, we use functionalities such as tools for certain procedures such as: document filing, report generation, definition of compliance rates and monitoring of procedures for regulatory compliance.