About

In the dismal financial scenario resulting from the 2008 financial crisis, the decision by Grupo Financiero Santander Mexico to pursue a dual listing (in both the US and Mexico), in late 2012, was a major challenge. Not only would it thus become the first Mexican bank to go public, but the deal also constituted the largest-ever offering by a Mexican issuer (not to mention the second largest in the US that year after Facebook, and the largest Latin American IPO since 2009). With a strict schedule, the operation required not only the coordination of the banks legal teams but also those of the placement-agent banks, as well as the management of relations with the relevant authorities in the US, Mexico and Spain. ‘The huge success of the operation’, it raised $4.1bn, ‘was fundamentally down to one man, Eduardo Fernández Garcia-Travesi’, the group’s director of legal affairs since 2006. Having joined the company in 1992, his position today covers areas including compliance, anti-money laundering and fiduciary matters, as well as regulatory matters and contingency investigations, for which he directs a staff of more than 200. Thriving on the broad vision of the business that results from involvement with each of its units (‘I love what I do’), he particularly enjoys the legal challenge constituted by the structuring of innovative transactions. Given the group’s size and weight in the Mexican market, he also finds himself involved with a range of other institutions (both public and private), and in commenting upon legal and regulatory projects. Notably, he is one of the few general counsel to suggest that one can learn from law firms, although he does recognise the need for the greater institutionalization of law firms in the local Mexican market.