Banco BNI Europa – GC Powerlist
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Iberia Teams 2019

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Banco BNI Europa

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Iberia Teams 2019

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Banco BNI Europa

About

Describing itself as a, ‘dynamic, proactive team with a great spirit of close collaboration’, the Banco BNI Europa legal function is made up of three lawyers; head of legal and compliance, Mariana Aires de Abreu, data protection officer, Cristina Bento Fernandes and general litigation and credit recovery, João Mendes da Silva. Together the team has been involved in the structuring of all Fintech arrangements established by the Bank, including significant involvement in peer to peer lending platforms, cross-border deposits platforms, invoices discounting platforms and payment services platforms. Two years ago, the Bank had the legal services outsourced to a medium-sized law firm, however it has since internalised the legal department. ‘Our goal was to create a legal department that operated as a law firm within the Bank, with a number of lawyers needed to attend to the Bank’s necessities, and with each lawyer focusing on a particular area of expertise, allowing us to internalise almost 100% of the legal work’, explains de Abreu. Based on this, the legal department is able to fully assist the Bank on legal matters, and is organised to cover all areas in which legal support is required. Another goal of the team has been to create a legal framework applicable to their relationship with external law firms, creating a relationship of close collaboration in which the Bank’s interests are safeguarded, with the law firm acting as an ally. ‘As a Bank, we have to provide solutions, and the law firms that we work with must have in-depth knowledge of our activity and therefore must work in partnership with us. In this view, our aim is to maximise efficiency in our relationship with law firms’, says de Abreu.

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