Gabriela Hernández Morgan joined Consubanco in 2007, a retail bank that was just starting up at the time, to lead the in-house legal team, and oversee all legal aspects of the business. Since starting, the legal team has grown from a team of two lawyers to a 26 person team that oversees all legal matters as well as internal control and compliance. Consubanco is now focused on the payroll loans market and over ten years has grown to cover the industry with a US$325.3m portfolio, 125 offices and five affiliates that originate loans for Consubanco.

One way she’s contributed to this growth and the workings of the legal department has been to train a legal team of ‘go-to advisors’ for each department on laws and regulations based on risks and ethics. This has allowed the bank to improve its internal control system and operational risk management, both relevant issues for supervisors around the world. Hernández started working in the financial sector fresh out of law school, where she joined the in-house legal team of Banco Santander México in a junior capacity but worked up the ranks quickly throughout her 14 year tenure there. She left as legal director for retail banking and financial products, overseeing legal issues for everything from retail banking, mortgages and credit cards to business policy.

It was here where she had the chance to learn the ropes of all the departments, giving her the opportunity to understand the way a retail bank operates and allowing her to become an effective partner for business units: ‘I got to really understand the importance of close interrelation between the legal department and the rest of the bank’s departments’, says Hernández. As someone who believes in the importance of empowering women, Hernández takes part in initiatives that focus on helping women to become the best professionals they can: ‘Being a woman in the banking world forced me to traduce into determination, any negative energy that comes my way regarding my capacity of doing things as well as a men.

I’ve learned that I don’t need to act as a man to be a successful legal professional, just by being myself and true to my values I’ve learned the way to build productive meaningful business relationships with both men and women’, reveals Hernández.