Could you share an example of a time when you came up with an innovation that improved how your legal team works and did not come at a large expense?

We are a small team serving the needs of a growing and increasingly complex multi-stakeholder business. Since our inception, one of our mandates, and a necessity for survival, has been to prioritise ruthlessly: we simply cannot do everything.

To reduce the burden on the team, we have streamlined legal documents and allowed other areas of the business to self-manage wherever possible. For example, we have incorporated legal design principles into our core contracts which make them easier to understand, even for non-lawyers. We have also created templates for core agreements, such as NDAs, and placed them in public repositories so that other teams can access and use them. In the same vein, we have generated repositories of frequently asked questions and contract negotiation guidelines to simplify contract review and negotiation, this benefits other areas as well as new legal personnel.

Finally, together with our amazing product and technology teams, we have automated some key recurring processes, such as the execution of certain agreements, the purchase and loan cancellation process, and some other reports required by law and regulations.

Can you foresee any key developments to the way general counsel work over the next five years?

To be an effective partner to an evolving business, general counsel can no longer remain on the sidelines of technological developments. They must understand and be prepared to adopt and incorporate technology into their role when it proves effective. Legal teams will need to take the legal operations function more seriously and adopt legal technology solutions to streamline their operations. These technologies should help drive efficiency, reduce costs, and improve decision-making processes.

Secondly, AI and machine learning technology has the potential to significantly change the legal function in the coming years. Legal teams can leverage these technologies for basic tasks like proofreading, but over time, they will also support functions such as contract analysis, due diligence, and legal research. AI-powered chatbots can also be implemented to handle routine legal queries and claims.

However, we must also understand that the use of technology also comes at a cost and poses new challenges for lawyers. General counsel will need to understand the associated risks, learn to navigate the legal implications, and develop appropriate policies to guide their organisations.

What are some of the main trends impacting the industry sector you work in in Colombia?

As more people access financial services, their demands for better solutions and products also increase. In fact, we have seen customers become more selective and demanding since the creation of the company at the end of 2018. It is no longer enough to launch a decent product; you must be great to succeed. This means focusing more on understanding and addressing your customers’ needs with your solutions, providing better UX and customer service, and increasing transparency, among other things.

At the same time, I believe that financial inclusion will remain a priority. While penetration and usage of financial services has certainly improved in recent years, the financial sector in Colombia still lacks depth. This represents a significant opportunity for industry participants, as there is still an untapped market waiting to be discovered. Financial institutions must find ways to understand this market, meet its needs and manage the associated risks.

Finally, I believe that technology will continue to play a crucial role in this industry. We expect, and hopefully will drive, an increasing penetration of digital payments and financial services. Open banking initiatives that promote data sharing should help increase competition in this sector and simplify the decision-making process for both financial service providers and customers. Moreover, as the use of AI becomes more widespread, it is likely to facilitate tasks such as fraud detection, risk assessment and customer service. Financial lawyers and regulators will need to keep pace with these developments to ensure that any associated risks are contained. For example, with the increasing digitisation of financial services, robust cybersecurity and data privacy measures are becoming increasingly important.