Government-owned Commercial Bank of Ethiopia is the country’s largest commercial bank. Holding over half of the country’s deposits and responsible for more than half of all its loans, the bank now operates more than 1,000 branches across Ethiopia as well as two branches in South Sudan.

The bank’s legal team has been instrumental in acting as a mediator between the bank and other government authorities, helping to ensure that all regulatory and compliance matters are woven into its operating structure. Chief legal and loan recovery officer Ato Samuel Tadesse Tesfaye manages the legal function and acts as the principal legal adviser to the bank’s CEO.

A member of the bank’s senior leadership team, Tadesse has built a legal team that operates to the highest ethical standards. Working in partnership with the bank’s chief risk and compliance officer, Woz Tiruberhan Hailu, Tadesse and his team have been active in promoting compliance protocols among non-legal staff, ensuring that employees are able to report potential problems to the legal team at an early stage.

Commercial Bank of Ethiopia has been widely credited with introducing modern banking to the country, helping to transform the local economy. In 2013 the bank introduced interest-free banking to personal and institutional account holders, a product that is compliant with Islamic banking rules, following a directive issued by The National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE).

The legal team once again showed great skill in disentangling the various legal and commercial threads to help the bank remain at the forefront of local financial innovation.