What are the most significant cases or transactions that your legal team has recently been involved in?

During 2021, together with the commercial banking team, we structured Interbank’s first green credit- and the first credit linked to sustainability in the agro-export sector.

Extensive work was carried out to ensure that both credits comply with the best practices in the sustainable finance market and, thus, ensure that they generated a positive social and environmental impact.

This year, we placed our first sustainability-linked loan in the fisheries sector. The inclusion of social, environmental, and governance criteria in commercial loans follows the best practices and standards published by LSTA.

How do you feel the pandemic has changed the world of work for in-house counsel and the function of the general counsel?

The initial uncertainty of the pandemic presented a challenge, requiring us to successfully adapt to remote working tools–connect with our teams, manage the emotional burden and meet the legal challenges that arose.

We set out to empower remotely by adopting positive leadership through the implementation of virtual spaces to share our mood. In the same way, we have included different rituals in our work, for example, planning, checking-in, and dairies that allow us to measure the real time progress of the different projects we have and to have greater clarity regarding their achievements.

We started ‘Interbank Eres’, a new employee-focused model. It includes the ‘Remote First’ concept as an option for those employees who prefer it. This model also redefines the use and concept of offices that will become collaborative spaces available to teams.

Looking forward, what technological advancements do you feel will impact the role of in-house legal teams in the future the most?

The bank has been implementing technological solutions to improve the work experience. This year we have been working on automating some low legal risks, high volume operations and the monitoring of such processes, in order to increase efficiency in the use of our resources and to also reduce the risk of paying fines.

In the administrative procedures initiated by consumers at Indecopi, the process of dealing with complaints has been almost completely modified, relying on digital tools. This implies that lawyers are more focused on assessing the criticality of a case, without wasting time travelling to the bank’s offices.

Furthermore, it avoids endless paperwork which generates significant savings for the bank. The exponential growth of fintech calls the in-house legal teams to be at the forefront of a continuous evolution and to both anticipate, learn and respond to the digital initiatives that are necessary for our sector.