A long standing in-house legal professional within Mexico’s financial services sector, Blanca Verónica Casillas Placencia has worked for Banco del Bajío since November 1995. Being recognised for her talent and diligence, she was promoted to sub-director of the legal area before assuming her current role of legal director of the corporate division in November of 2007. Relied upon by the business not only for her legal nous, Casillas was named the secretary of the board of directors in 2010 and is also part of the bank’s risk and communication and control committees.

Having founded the bank’s legal team over 20 years ago – which she considers the ‘main achievement’ in her career – Casillas has overseen the expansion of a function from two to 25 lawyers which provides ‘support and follow up to the recovery of legal portfolio, criminal litigation, legal advice to the branch network, [and] attention to complaints of CONDUSEF’. The team also supports on general corporate affairs which have recently encompassed matters ‘related to mergers and acquisitions’. Such efforts have had a real effect on business fortunes, Casillas herself advising on the incorporation and subsequent exit processes of shareholders and the implementation of new corporate governance practices.

She has also advised the company during a tumultuous time in the financial sector and helped steer the company through changes required by the financial reforms of 2014. In 2016, she participated in the IFC exit process as a shareholder of the institution and went on to participate in the process that led Banco del Bajío to offer its shares publically on the Mexican Stock Exchange. She sums up her tenure at the company: ‘Reinforcement of the structure of the [legal] area and continuous update of the policies and procedures allowed by law; support the operation covering the legal risk and operational; seeking at all moments the creation of value for all investors, employees and interested third parties, with sustainability criteria and long-term vision’.