About

Highly experienced financial in-house lawyer María Cristina Vilá de Van Hoorde has earned her title through working for multinational banks for the majority of her career, successfully supporting the franchises she has worked at in the development and execution of their corporate strategy. Prior to taking up her role at Banistmo, the second largest bank in Panama, she served as senior vice president of the legal and compliance departments for Citibank Panama branch for nine years where she was integral to multiple M&As. For instance she was behind Citibank Panamá acquiring Banco Uno and Banco Cuscatlan de Panamá. ‘Why I am proud of these transactions is not only the technical aspect of the transaction, but the capacity of coordinating several teams and interacting with multiple parties, regulators, internal teams and clients to close them successfully’, says Vilá. A large part of her success in closing several commercial transactions is attributed to her passion and talent in developing and managing extremely effective and functional legal teams that have served the company strategically. She considers the development of human talent and mentoring lawyers and senior executives, some of which today hold the highest legal, compliance or executive positions in relevant local financial entities, as one of her ‘greatest achievements’. She has been responsible for transforming the role of the legal team from an operational team to a strategic team that anticipates changes in their environment and generates value with their expertise by providing simple and innovative solutions to clients and stakeholders. Another of Vilá’s career highlights is the launching of the first private pension fund in the Republic of Panama, and recently closing the biggest financial private real estate transaction in Panama with the participation of over 13 banks and more than 400 commercial creditors related or impacted by the transaction. She has also worked on the implementation of Nequi – the first fintech digital platform launched by a banking entity in Panama, a platform that has received multiple international awards.