About

Marco Araújo’s global and regional remit reflects the high level of operational and legal expertise he brings to HSBC, experience gained from an in-house career that extends to over 20 years in the banking sector. In his current role at HSBC, Araújo is responsible for global legal support to HSBC’s commercial banking arm, which covers approximately 55 countries and generates around $15bn of revenue for the HSBC Group. Additionally, Araújo holds a regional General Counsel role, which covers advisory and litigation support across HSBC’s Latin America business; covering Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Mexico and Uruguay. Araújo has overseen two main changes during his time in his role; bringing a ‘more financial’ view to the management of litigation, and optimising the structure surrounding transactional lawyers’ work, making them more efficient and closer to the business. Viewed very positively both within HSBC and externally, Araújo has developed ‘excellent levels of trust and communication with the legal team’s internal clients’ with a focus on providing ‘fast, forward-looking and high quality advice’. A lawyer with keen commercial instincts, Araújo claims the most enjoyable aspects of his role is through his ‘direct contact with the business’ and ‘coordinating people and building high performance teams’. Araújo believes that the interaction between in-house legal teams and business counterparts has ‘been increasing tremendously’ regardless of the company, and that ‘legal functions everywhere can be a strong determining factor in making any business more successful’. Licenced by the São Paulo Bar Association, Araújo also reached the New York State Bar in 1993 and has had numerous roles in industry bodies such as The Financial System Self-regulatory Council, Brazil’s Financial System Administrative Court of Appeal (CRSFN) and is currently the executive director of The Brazilian Banking Association (Febraban).