About

The most significant banking institution in Spain, Banco Santander is serviced by numerous different internal legal teams working on a variety of specialities reporting to new group general counsel Oscar García Maceiras. Jaime Pérez Renovales, general secretary and board secretary of the bank, is spoken of highly and is said to ‘lead an excellent team to manage all legal affairs in international businesses’ according to a nominating source. The corporate legal team of Banco Santander is a team of 19 professionals who provide legal assistance via a wide range of specialties. Leading the overall team is Javier Illescas, head of corporate legal, who employs a team emphasising efficiency and quality control across several areas. The corporate legal department includes teams specialising in M&A, led by Juan Charro, a financial management department led by Eduardo Otero, a corporate governance department led by Blanca Martinez García, a corporate structure department led by Carlos Beltrán and Santander Legal Support department led by Maria Dolores Conde. The variety and strength of these in-house teams allows legal to be seen as a ‘centralised support function’ according to Illescas, allowing for not only comprehensive legal and compliance protection, but easy implementation of Santander’s culture, explained by Illescas to be ‘simple, personal and fair’. The most innovative measure introduced regarding in-house legal at the bank is through the aforementioned Santander Legal Support department, acting as a dedicated function handling affairs spanning internal policies, staffing, team building and management, education, legal procurement and the coordination of resources. This support function is led by Maria Dolores Conde to widespread internal acclaim. Within the most recent and relevant matters, in January 2017 Banco Santander placed a new regulatory capital instrument worth €1.5bn, modelled to comply with upcoming Total Loss Absorption Capacity (TLAC) requirements coming into effect in 2019. A new type of instrument in the market falling under new “senior non-preferred” debt classifications not previously provided for under Spanish law, the issue was ‘particularly challenging for business and legal teams’ due to its unique nature. Santander’s corporate legal in-house lawyers Eduardo Otero, Chema Ciruelos and Javier Illescas along with private practice lawyers in Madrid and London, were able to issue it successfully, a testament to their collaborative ability and technical skill. Due to their international presence, Santander are exposed to several machinations of global financial markets that are often unforeseen, Illescas explains how ‘financial sector turmoil’ involving ‘regulation, political events [and] higher market scrutiny on banking practices and digital transformation’ impact the work of all of Banco Sandander’s in-house legal teams. Illescas utilises a head-on approach to dealing with these events, including to ‘implement structures and working habits in a more efficient way’. Noted as having ‘paramount significance’ and of equal importance to the respective business teams, the different working teams within the department are ‘central to each and every transaction or project in which they are involved’. Involved in several of these, Illescas nonetheless highlighted four significant transactions in the corporate legal team’s recent work; the acquisition of Santander Asset Management and the sale of Allfunds Bank, the aforementioned new regulatory capital instrument, the adaptation of new corporate governance practices and lastly the internal reorganisation and enhanced control of group transactions. The Santander digital and data protection legal team is led by Jose de Reina Amarillas and comprises of seven lawyers central to the smooth operation of this new division that resulted from the merger of legal commercial, innovation corporate and retail banking divisions. Having to switch their focus, this team was previously dedicated to retail and commercial banking divisions of the company, but now has an expanded remit that includes areas of innovation, customer data protection and privacy, the group’s international private banking business as well as digital banking business Open Bank. Innovative in nature, the team impact customers directly through legal support to innovations such as border guarantees, new payment solutions, the cloud and regulatory projects. De Reina explains how adopting an ‘agile and multijurisdictional working methodology’ helps achieve their goals, a testament to the talent within the team and de Reina’s leadership. In addition to these outstanding internal legal teams, other Banco Santander in-house legal functions are known to provide the bank with high-quality advice, including the global corporate banking legal team, headed by Julia Bayón, and the universities, foundations and CSR legal team headed by Teresa Saenz-Diez Rojas.