About

A leading expert in the banking sector, Alicia Muñoz Lombardía has served the legal department of Santander Group for 20 years, having joined in 1995 to lead the legal research area. Later she joined the global banking and markets legal department and in 2008 she was appointed head of the real estate legal department, in addition to her previous responsibility as head of legal in IT. Currently, she leads the legal functions of communication, marketing and research, HR, accounting, investors and supervisory relations, with a particular emphasis on the European Central Bank and compliance, while she also holds the role of the secretary of the board of the Santander Group companies. During her time at Santander she has contributed some important changes in the workings of the group legal departments. Examples include the development of the group’s sustainability policies and the creation of all model templates and documents used with providers and suppliers. Muñoz Lombardía played a significant role in the preparation of the legal work for the creation of Altamira, the real estate company of Banco Santander. ‘It was a very challenging time for us’ she comments. ‘When I took over as secretary of the board of all the group companies in 2008, amid the financial crisis, the bank had many real estate assets to manage. We tried to organise these assets from a legal point of view; we negotiated with international funds and I was involved in all stages’.