About

Australia and New Zealand (ANZ) Banking Group’s legal team in Hong Kong consists of nine staff and is led by Ben Hamilton, head of legal for Asia. In the past 12 months, the team has dealt with various significant legal and regulatory matters. For instance, the team conceived and led the execution of an ambitious project to deliver a novel framework and process to better co-ordinate and simplify the execution of facility documents. This initiative promoted a harmonised approach to customer facing documentation and supports ANZ’s desire to make it faster and easier for clients to bank with ANZ across its network, while also enhancing product governance. The team led the process redesign which involved different stakeholders across coverage, risk and the back office from the bank’s home markets as well as markets across the bank’s broad geographic reach. ‘Given it’s alignment to the bank’s strategy, the initiative has been widely welcomed by senior executives in the bank’s institutional division’, Hamilton says. In addition, regional support to all countries in the Asia and Middle East regions as well as ad hoc support for the US and UK has required the team to be up-to-date with legal and regulatory developments that impact operations and products, placing significant demands on the team as to their capabilities and expertise. Commenting on the strategy of hiring and retaining legal talent in the team, Hamilton states, ‘We pride ourselves on providing a different working environment, a values-led team that doesn’t work in silos and which embraces flexible work practices to attract and retain the best talent. An environment such as this – and one which has a flat, inclusive structure – only serves to help our people feel supported, intellectually challenged and that they work in a team that will continue to support their growth and development. ANZ legal is a purpose and values led team comprised of diverse members from across ANZ’s geographic footprint. We endeavour to have fun and invest a great deal of energy and time in “soft skills” training and development, not just the legal side of their role. We want to develop future leaders, whether for our organisation or to go out and explore other opportunities, with the experience and development they have had with us being an important stepping stone to their future opportunities’.