About

The legal team at the Portuguese division of multinational insurance group Zurich is headed by general counsel and chief compliance officer Nuno Moraes Bastos, and is made up of four lawyers and one paralegal that cover legal, compliance and company secretarial affairs. Seeking to continuously improve the compact and dynamic team which is, according to Bastos, ‘for better or worse always on the move’. A recent significant hire was a more senior compliance officer reporting directly to Bastos – this is a significant upgrade for the position, which was previously occupied by more junior lawyers with less experience. The highly regulated nature of the insurance market means the team is busy ensuring their Portuguese entities are abiding by the appropriate regulations. The team is particularly proficient with regards to money laundering issues, for example ‘already discussing with the business about the fifth directive while the fourth directive is still being drawn up’. The fact that members of the team were involved in special committees in the Portuguese parliament is a huge endorsement for the team’s thinking in this line of work. Notwithstanding the regulatory affairs, there have also been a number of internal changes designed to enhance the team’s ability and scope, improving internal methods of working through different efficiency programs. Bastos cites his ‘right arm’ for legal and compliance as being Pedro Bernardino, who came to Zurich Portugal after time spent in the legal departments at HSBC and Deutsche Bank in Spain. Also highly spoken of is Dania Rodrigues who he cites as being a ‘game changer’ who was ‘key’ in the company’s implementation of Solvency II. Legal representation is given at board level through Bastos’ position on the management team, and he was keen to ‘not have something passive’ which he claims has already been achieved. Bastos takes pride in being ‘very integrated’ with the sales and distribution teams showing their commercial nous as well as legal knowledge, ‘thinking of solutions before the problem even exists’ which, although ‘troublesome’ at times is the greatest measure of the team’s utility. Truly making them a part of the company in a business sense, the team enjoys daily interaction with the CEO extending the team whilst Pedro Bernardino is often relied upon at senior level for his expertise, having one on one meetings with the CEO and sitting on all of the governors committees to ensure compliance’s voice is heard at each stage of decision making.