Team size: 12

Key team members: Boren Kork, Socheata San, Pichpangha Hean, Pengsrorn Chrork, Phalla Lim, Sonita Ouk.

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

The 17-year-old Bank we work for underwent a momentous transition four years ago (in 2019) when the Australian majority shareholder (ANZ) sold all of its stakes to the Japanese J Trust company. The Bank then changed its name from ANZ Royal Bank Cambodia to J Trust Royal Bank. Our legal and company secretariat function played a key role in the whole process, from the confidential due diligence stage until the public announcement of the sale. Then the entire Legal and Compliance team got fully involved in the 15-month separation project (working with external counsel and ANZ group legal team in preparing/reviewing transaction documents, securing necessary regulatory approvals, ensuring proper corporate filing with competent authorities, joining staff engagement/communication to make sure of a smooth transition). After completing the separation project, our Legal and Compliance team’s mission continued updating the Bank’s terms and conditions for each product, legal documents with customers and stakeholders, policies and other standard operation procedures.

The Bank’s transition and 4-year post-transition experience working independently with no longer support from the regional/group legal/compliance team have been a challenge and opportunity for us to grow stronger personally and professionally. We catch up more on business development and insight and shape our decisions and way of working accordingly, without jeopardising our high/ethical/international standards. We have also matured our resilience and experience to significant internal or external changes.

Most recently (between late 2022 and early 2023), the team got involved in and contributed to the enablement of the construction project of the Bank’s new head office on the existing site and the temporary relocation of the head office and a main branch to another site before the construction is completed ( such as reviewing and giving inputs on all relevant agreements, securing necessary regulatory approvals and corporate filing with competent authorities, updating legal documents and templates).

In addition, to catch up on the current tightening market competition, the Bank has been recently putting up new projects and innovative products, in which our legal and compliance team plays a critical role in giving legal/regulatory advice, securing necessary regulatory approvals, and helping prepare new terms and conditions as well as legal documents.

Can you sum up the team culture or ethos?

Living and demonstrating ICARE Value is the prerequisite behaviour of each team member. ICARE stands for Integrity, Collaboration, Respect, and Engagement. It is the bank-wide core value set for all employees. In our legal and compliance team, we share the common aspiration of (i) being a solid and well-recognised team, (ii) being connected and collaborative: ‘one team, one way, once’; and (iii) striving for a complete understanding of the business’s strategic objectives and help the business to meet them, whilst providing excellent, collaborative, customer-centric and solution-focused advice and service.

Apart from legal matters, has the team worked on other company initiatives?

Our team consists of four main functions, including legal, company secretariat, regulatory compliance, and financial crime compliance. One of our team’s objectives is to raise awareness/understanding of and compliance with laws, regulations, business ethics, and internal policies across the Bank. Therefore, part of our activities is conducting regular and ad-hoc training, knowledge sharing, coaching, and giving internal staff legal and regulatory updates/advice. Externally, we also have our team members joining industry activities, such as myself chairing the Compliance Committee of the Association of Banks in Cambodia (ABC) and Pengsrorn participating in the E-KYC working group of the same (ABC). I am also a trainer at the Institute of Banking and Finance (IBF). I provide training on law and compliance a few times a year to participants from other banks and financial institutions.