About

Milan-based Simone Davini was appointed head of legal and corporate affairs at Crédit Agricole Corporate and Investment Bank in October 2010, taking advantage of his already rich experience within the banking and financial services industry. Having started his career in private practice, Davini gained experience working on numerous finance-based transactions, after which he moved in-house to eventually lead legal teams at Intesa Sanpaolo and ING Direct Italy before starting at Crédit Agricole. Throughout his in-house career he has been perceived as an ‘effective business partner’ and ‘originator of value added’ within the business. Changes he’s made to the workings of the legal department in his current position are closely related to the improvement of internal processes, including, but not limited to, the selection of external firms, cross-functional communication and the criteria for performance review of the team. Reflective of the way the global financial crisis has impacted the banking industry, Davini cites his biggest challenge as adapting to the post-2007 business and legal environment where he noticed increase pressure on ‘costs, results and complexity’, while resources at his disposal typically went down. As a way to combat this and find new ways of working, Davini regularly networks with and benchmarks against his peers in the market. These activities are used to stay ahead of the regulatory curve, highlighting the fact that such pressures are ‘a key challenge for any GC’. Sitting on several committees and having direct reporting lines to senior management, Davini enjoys a close relationship with both his staff and key business partners. In addition to his in-house achievements, Davini passed the bar exam with the Court of Appeals of Milan in 1999 and has also written articles about the law and regulations regarding OTC derivatives.