About

‘I believe I face the same challenge that every general counsel is facing today,’ says Lai Minh Thuy, Citigroup’s Vietnam legal counsel. ‘We are responsible for advising our business partners to do the right thing in a rapidly evolving regulatory framework’. During her ten years at Citibank’s now multi-award-winning Vietnam business, Lai Minh Thuy has built up the country’s entire legal and compliance function. ‘Citibank Vietnam was a very small franchise when I joined,’ she says. ‘Over the years we built, launched and grew many business lines, products and services in Vietnam, and have become market leaders on various fronts’. Vietnam is the first country in Citi to successfully launch consumer banking on an existing corporate banking platform. Lai Minh Thuy works closely with the business on strategy planning, product development and transactions. In managing the legal team, she has helped every team member to develop their own specific business area to focus on. ‘I give them the necessary independence to do their work with my little supervision, while appreciating team spirit and information and experience sharing’. Lai Minh Thuy is chairwoman of the legal/compliance sub-committee of the Bank Working Group. An association of all Vietnam’s foreign banks, the group is in dialogue with the State Bank of Vietnam on industry-wide issues and regulatory developments. ‘This role allows me to understand the regulator’s direction,’ she says.‘It also gives me the opportunity to contribute best practice and international experience to my company, with the aim of a stronger banking industry’.