About

Summing up the challenges for BancTrust & Co, a boutique Latin American investment bank, Carlos Enrique Hernández Laya, general counsel, explains how his team has led ‘the expansion of the company’s business to new geographies, with the uncertainties, new legal, economic and political conditions to learn, while [keeping] business moving in an agile manner, ensuring success of expansion as well as overall organisation sustainability in multiple geographies’. Ably facilitating the bank’s business pursuits, the three lawyers and one economist that comprise the legal team are faced with some testing market challenges including ‘continuous changes in regulation’, which requires ‘thorough analysis… and adaptation of strategy to ensure minimal business disruption’. In charge of a comprehensive remit that covers all legal matters of the group, the issues Hernández Laya and team deal with include internal corporate matters in all countries where BancTrust does business – covering M&A, joint ventures, capital markets, trading and corporate finance. The multi-faceted team recently adding other strings to their bow, and the legal duties are now complemented by an expectation to act as business partners to provide ‘better business solutions’. The previously separate compliance unit was recently integrated into the wider legal department, which also now includes due diligence and “on boarding” functions, the latter of which is to ‘lead and oversee the creation of new clients, counterparties, credit lines, as well as any commercial relationship with the group’. The bank has also had to deal with a testing spinoff process, which required the reorganisation of company structures, agreements and led to new strategies after the separation process – a process which was designed and led entirely by the legal team. Hernández Laya explains how innovation is also at the forefront of the teams thinking – evinced by their commitment to proposal and implementation of best practices, strategic mapping, risk management approach and corporate restructure program in order to mitigate risk and also generate both savings due to effective risk management, and revenue directly from the legal unit due to the maximisation of company profit and portfolio growth. In addition to this commitment to reputation, the BancTrust legal team is also dedicated to innovation. The legal team created a system within the company for business users to gain ‘insight and further knowledge of risk management for day to day business decisions’. Elements in this system include ‘training, policies, Q&As, previous cases library, knowledge check, among other learning and risk management tools’ and has the intent of enabling users to make ‘better educated decisions on the day-to-day of the business and commercial relationships, gaining independence and agility while still complying with legal and regulatory requirements’. Entrusted to support a multitude of transactions covering incorporation, tenders, debt negotiations and the development of M&A projects further demonstrate the adept and versatile nature of their support.