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 organization´s resilience?

During periods of economic instability following the pandemic, the car finance industry has suffered from the increase of inflation and the subsequent reduction of the consumer’s capacity to purchase. In addition to this, there has been a surge in the price of cars, influenced by the increment of transportation costs and, in certain periods, a disruption in the transportation and distribution chains, which are necessary to import cars. Additionally, there has been a constant uncertainty on the levels of production that will be reached within the car factories, especially in Asia, and the availability of cars to sell in the Chilean market.

For those reasons, there has been a drop in the demand of new and used cars and car loans; this scenario was not foreseeable and required to provide constant legal support to structure measures on pricing, find the legal options to design new loan products and relieve our clients by restructuring debts.

Our external funding has been a challenge as well, since the company has faced a surge in the interest rates and the cost of funding. New strategies on funding to reduce its cost and diversify its origin have been relevant to reduce the exposure of the company to volatility. The Legal Department, along with the Financial Department has carried out several analyses to implement a new funding structure.

All the previous mentioned measures have been designed in accordance with the local regulations, FORUM policies and guidelines and with the cooperative work and analysis that has been carried out with the CFO and his team, the board of directors and the commercial managers.

These analyses, ideas, measures and projects have formed part of a strategic plan which was carried out in 2023 and 2024 and which will be complemented and redesigned this year for the 2025 – 2027 period.

What measures has your company taken to embed sustainability practices into its core business operations, and how does the role of the general counsel contribute to driving and ensuring sustainable practices within the company?

FORUM established ESG goals for our operations during 2024, promoting among our providers the commitment to sustainable practices and the certification of the fulfilment of such standards. This year, we involved employees on sustainability initiatives such as recycling waste, collaborating with non-profit organisations, such “Inspiring girls” (promoting the aspirations of girls by connecting them with female managers of our Company), mentoring young female and female adolescents.

This year, FORUM signed the protocol to join the National Electromobility Strategy of the Chilean Government, which establishes a set of measures to transition to electromobility. This National Strategy will mean the draft of regulations and the implementation of incentives to develop electromobility. This is, considered a cornerstone to reach carbon neutrality by 2050; consequently, FORUM is committed to design new financial products to promote the purchase of electric cars and to collaborate with Car importers to reach these standards.

FORUM has also modified its service agreement templates to include ESG goals and promote the respect of labour rights, boost environmental practices, ensure that data privacy is respected and try to ensure that cybersecurity standards are met by our providers to protect our clients. The legal department, working alongside our external legal advisers, has drafted policies and clauses to fulfil such goals.

As general counsel, and member of the board of managers, I have designed the necessary protocols to mitigate the cyber security risks involved in our commercial activity and I have provided legal advice on structuring such initiatives. Along with my team and the Compliance department, we have drafted policies on the use of customer’s data, prevention of cyber fraud and employees’ data privacy.

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?

Artificial Intelligence will pose questions and open options which were beyond our current natural way of thinking and perform and that will break barriers.

For instance, litigation will be benefited by the ability to find and process large number of judicial decisions to enrich our analysis (even though judicial precedents are not binding in Chile, legal reasoning of court’s decisions can allow us to analyse and apply previous judicial decisions to new cases). Legal research activities will be able to access sources that were noy easily available and AI tools can suggest analysis and participate as a member of the team. Some functions within the legal department will be replaced by search engines and data processors and it will free time to focus on the development of new AI tools and on its new functionalities.

As a legal department, we have started a project to suggest new usages to AI tools. The team has been challenged to review the processes of the legal department and present new ideas and plans to modify, for instance, i) the way we carry out due diligence reports, ii) the way we follow up our internal activities, iii) the manner in which we obtain data, the way that we manage claims and identify operational risks and iv) design new ways to interact with other areas of the company.

Our department will invest part of our time as a “lab” to design and analyse the viability of such projects and their real benefit for the organisation. We consider this project to be relevant and challenging, since not every great idea can be a good idea for our company or for our team; AI tools have to increase our capabilities, let us save time, allow us to prepare for future challenges and help us to be relevant members of the legal community in the future.