About

Nimer Basbous has recently taken on a new role as head of legal for personal banking at First Abu Dhabi Bank (FAB), a new financial giant born out of the merger of National Bank of Abu Dhabi (NBAD) and First Gulf Bank (FGB), where he was previously general counsel. Basbous was provided with a high level of responsibility from early on in his career, which he considers to be a personal career highlight and key to his subsequent success. ‘I started my career as a junior lawyer in the legal department of the Central Bank of Jordan’, he recalls, ‘and about 3 years after joining CBJ, I was appointed as a member of a committee of senior managers to manage a problem bank. My involvement in such a high stakes transaction with very senior members of the CBJ at an early stage of my in-house career had a tremendous positive impact on my understanding of banking, and led to my interest in bankruptcy regimes and resolution models for problem banks’. He has drawn from this experience throughout his career, which has seen him working on a large number of high-value and prominent transactions and projects. None, perhaps, are more complex, valuable and high profile than the role he has played on the successful merger of NBAD and FGB. ‘This project required focused and coordinated efforts by me and my team’, he describes, ‘and in order for this critical activity to succeed, hard work, understanding of the underlying legal issues, and a commercial approach were essential. I would not be exaggerating to say that the work we did was an essential element that led to the success of the merger transaction’. Prior to the merger, Basbous revolutionised the legal function at FGB, displaying his high-calibre managerial and organisational expertise in the setting of a leading financial institution. As well as technical improvements, such as the introduction of new standardised templates and documentation and new and improved framework of policies and process for the management legal risk, he was successful in changing the perception of the legal function at the bank: ‘over my first 3 years at FGB, the legal department became a trusted advisor with early involvement in material projects, products, and transactions. The steps I took to achieve this included hiring and leading a team of highly qualified lawyers, simplification of processes (the benefit of which the business could see and feel), and better communication’. This is an initiative that many in-house counsel have tried and failed to achieve successfully. His interpersonal skills together with his technical abilities and commerciality will undoubtedly pay dividends to the fortunes of FAB for many years to come.