About

Serving as head of legal for North and South Asia as well as global head of legal for investment banking, Nicholas Chua leads a legal team of five at CIMB, a leading regional financial institution in Asia. During the past 12 months, the team structure has been changed at a broader group level, where the previously separated legal and compliance functions were combined to form a single function across the CIMB Group. In the past year, following the establishment of CIMB and China Galaxy joint venture for the equities business across the region, the team has been involved in various complex projects relating to the collaboration of CIMB and China Galaxy teams and work processes relating to cash equities businesses, specifically on equity capital market transactions, across Asia. The team has also been involved in a number of internal projects designed to improve efficiency in the delivery of legal services, including producing documentation guides for its internal clients to provide for greater understanding and better negotiation strategy and embarking on the creation of internal databases of written advice which are easily accessible, thereby avoiding duplication and potential costs. In the next 12 months, the legal team would expect to see increased regulatory enforcement scrutiny across the financial industry. The team will assist in reviewing internal processes to ensure compliance with relevant rules as well as engaging in industry best practices. ‘We also anticipate challenging market conditions ahead, particularly given current macroeconomic and geopolitical factors, such as Brexit and the US-China trade war, which could have an impact on margins’, Chua explains. Another challenge for CIMB will be to adapt and stay agile in the “Fourth Industrial Revolution” and to keep pace with not only the current but also the future technological and digital environment. The legal department will have a key role to play as it partners with various businesses of the company to embark on its new “Forward 23” five-year strategic plan to tackle these challenges. As part of the plan, the team will be involved in various projects to accelerate growth in key markets, while repositioning, incubating and investing in others. It will also assist in projects designed to future proof its businesses to ensure they are sustainable in the long run, focusing on customer, technology and data, people, ventures and partnerships and sustainability. Talking about the strategy of hiring and retaining legal talent in the team, Chua states: ‘CIMB offers a broad variety of experience on interesting and exciting regional and cross border transactions across Asia. Along with a close-knit group of personable and highly skilled team players, we are able to provide a cohesive and friendly working environment within the legal function’. The recent developments in legal technology has influenced the way the legal team works, ‘with importance placed on efficiency, the team has embraced faster and secure forms of communications via new messaging systems, which has improved the speed of delivery of information internationally, especially on urgent matters’, Chua says.