About

Grupo Bancolombia’s legal team is constantly changing and evolving in order to adapt to a legal system that has recently been transforming drastically. The team, led by corporate legal vice president and general counsel Marco Chas Mauricio Rosillo, consists of 273 in-house lawyers and is one of the largest in Colombia. As a result of the changes in the Colombian jurisdiction, the bank has installed an enhanced corporate compliance department that goes beyond local and international legal requirements, meeting international compliance standards. This change involved moving the department under the corporate legal vice-presidency’s umbrella, and adding personnel specialised in subject matters such as legal and regulatory compliance, data protection, anti-corruption, financial customer, among others. According to Rosillo, ‘this change puts the company at the forefront of legal, regulatory and compliance issues, using all knowledge to promptly serve our clients’ needs, while building trust among our different stakeholders’. This is achieved by identifying accurately and promptly risks and solutions to improve the team’s knowledge management by leveraging technology. The department has a unit dedicated to scope, acquire and implement technological solutions that facilitate good working practices. It constantly address changes using information and knowledge management and data analytics, thus contributing to greater opportunities in the delivery of value. The department has also worked alongside other departments to achieve the opening of a cutting edge bank branch and office network called Bancolombia Lab. The bank became the first to introduce biometric authentication, fingertip recognition, and facial recognition in its branches and offices. It has also introduced facial recognition in its banking app. The legal team was a key player in the negotiation with MetroCali on the way systems operators should be remunerated. Based on the new remuneration formula, Bancolombia restructured the debt and leasing of the two major operators of the public transportation system and the fare collector and manager in order to preserve the service, and ensure the sustainability and maintenance of the public transportation system in Cali. This transaction allowed the legal team, through its participation as creditor, to contribute in order to guarantee such an important public service for the city of Cali. Through the Nequi platform, Bancolombia’s digital bank, the bank has been able to manage clients in this new age platform. With this in mind, the legal team was instrumental in creating and implementing a virtual debit card and a small loans programme completely online. Both of these initiatives will consolidate the presence of Nequi in the Colombian financial system, being part of the critical strategy of the future of the group in the digital era. According to Rosillo, ‘the secret ingredient to [the] legal team’s success is that we all work as a whole, each and every one is a true team player, and each person’s role within this structure is crucial for achieving our organisation’s common goals… all are constantly developing relationships built on trust, which in turn, enriches, through technological developments recently incorporated, the knowledge that necessarily leads to becoming an innovating team in all that we do’.