Team size: 40

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

The legal team was involved in the collaboration with a leading e-wallet. The e-wallet platform provides potential customers the convenience to secure such loans through a fully embedded, seamless, in-app process within short approval and disbursement time. In particular, the legal team was involved in modification of the existing internal operational processes, SOPs updates and modified legal documentation from traditional loan application, approval and disbursement. Quick processing time is made possible through credit scoring models for category of users, which is jointly built through data sharing in the collaboration. The innovation is expected to disburse up to MYR300m as well as drive financial inclusion and improve customer experience.

The legal team was involved in the first ringgit denominated RM2.45 billion sustainability-linked derivative (SLD) transaction. In particular, the legal team was involved in the innovative documentation. Importantly, this was structured to involve a pricing mechanism whereby a discount (cost reduction) or premium (penalty) will be applied depending on whether CIMB Group achieves pre-agreed sustainability performance targets (KPIs).

Did the pandemic lead to a lasting increase in the interaction your legal team has with the strategic plans of the company?

The pandemic resulted in movement control orders and lockdowns, causing the economy to suffer, and many people to lose all or part of their income. To alleviate the financial burden of our impacted customers regionally, CIMB launched a series of assistance or relief packages for them in Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore and Thailand. Such was required to be done expeditiously, including consultation with government agencies, with proper legal documentation and terms and conditions in place. The legal team increased interaction with the business stakeholders in reviewing processes and documentation to allow customers to access the relief programs conveniently. Introduction of new digital processes allowed for the electronic signing of agreements to ensure customers could comply with the lockdowns when applying for relief. Post pandemic, these digital processes remain embedded, and they have helped to provide the “strategic leap” in customer experience and business efficiency.

Looking forward, what technological advancements do you feel will impact the role of in-house legal teams in the future the most? Which have you found most useful in your legal team?

Technological advancements will help with the optimisation of resources in legal teams. We have found the inclusion of machine learning and AI useful, and will assist in-house legal teams to create solutions for templates and odules that can be quickly adapted to cater for various business requirements. The role of the in-house legal teams is to ensure that the end-to-end build meets all legal, regulatory and risk requirements.