About

Created in 1953 by governmental decree, Banco del Estado de Chile (also known as BancoEstado) is Chile’s only state-owned bank and since the 1970s has been the country’s largest bank. In April 2014, the bank hired Pedro Neira Asenjo as legal director for his formidable experience in providing legal advice to high profile Chilean institutions. In 2017 he has already helped the bank open new branches and issue a number of bonds in Japan, Australia and Switzerland. With new domestic banking regulations reportedly requiring BancoEstado to obtain a capitalisation of $1bn to comply, they will rely on Neira to draw on his experience in order to manage the additional requirements. Immediately prior to his appointment, he was a consultant at Proter, a retailer in construction tools. Prior to that, Neira was legislative legal advisor and chief of staff for Senator José Antonio Gómez between 2007 until 2014. During that period he also served on the board of directors of ENAP Refinerías for a one year period immediately after the global financial crash. In other senior legal positions Neira has been deputy secretary general of government, from 2006 until 2007, head of the Communications Department and advisor to the National Directorate of Legal Medical Service for three years between 2003 and 2006 and he was a legal adviser at the Chilean Copper Commission at the turn of the century. Neira holds a Master’s degree in environmental law from the University of Chile and also holds a diploma in administrative and economic law, and a degree in mining from the Universidad Católica de Chile. Given his vast experiences at different governmental institutions, he has also spoken at various national and international seminars, including in China and Costa Rica.