About

Can you highlight the key individuals and their role within the department? Amar Sundram (head of legal, corporate governance and regulatory affairs) is managing legal affairs for RBS India, RBS Foundation and oversees NatWest Markets (the investment banking arm of The RBS Group), to ensure compliance with the RBS Group’s corporate governance policy and subsidiary governance framework. His focus area is towards all legal and regulatory risks which may impact RBS India. He is working towards providing legal advice and support to various divisions, making the India business aware of significant changes in legislation and case laws that may affect business practice, corporate risk and liability. Sundram is part of the India executive committee of RBS India and actively involved in strategic planning, advice and decision making along with other senior members of RBS India and RBS Group. Sundram is associated with various professional bodies – a notable one being the founding member of the Indian Corporate Counsels’ Association (ICCA), Life member of Indian Council of Arbitration (FICCI – Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry) and member International board of advisors, Jindal Global Law University in India. Recognising his contribution in the field of corporate law and strategic planning and for his exemplary commitment in legal policy implementation and corporate leadership, he was conferred with the title of “honorary professor” by Amity University, Haryana in the year 2019. Rohit Vashisth (vice president – legal) is managing legal affairs for RBS India and oversees NatWest Markets. HIs role is to ensure best corporate governance practices across RBS India along with various legal support and advice to the board of directors of the company, other senior stakeholders and various business functions. Vashisth has a professional experience of over one and half decades and is actively involved in: support and advice to property services on disputes with landlord, stamp duty related matters, national building codes, other regulatory representations; support and advice to Technology India on privacy laws, Information Technology Act, DOT policies including but not limited to OSP licenses and data privacy; and support on other queries pertaining to the applicability of Indian laws, rules and regulations, UK and EU laws and regulations such as GDPR and the Independent Commission on Banking (ICB). Amit Agarwal (senior legal analyst) is managing and supporting legal affairs for RBS India and oversees NatWest Markets. He has a professional experience of over eight years and ensures the best corporate governance practices and RBS Group policies at RBS India. Agarwal is actively involved in various legal support and advice to senior stakeholders and business functions. Shubhangi Kansal (legal analyst) is managing and supporting legal affairs for RBS India. She ensures the best corporate governance practices, board governance and RBS Group policies at RBS India. She is actively involved in various legal support and advice to senior stakeholders and business functions ensuring complete compliances with the Companies Act and matters related thereto. Have any new laws, regulations or judicial decisions greatly impacted your company’s business or your legal practice? First, the UK’s implementation of the General Data Protection Regulation which was made effective from May 2018. As per the regulation, all the UK companies and their group companies have faced a great challenge in understanding the requirement of the regulation as it changed the way data need to be managed by all UK companies. It also required modifications in various agreements where the data/or information of UK citizen is involved. The enactment of new India Data Protection Act is also likely to impact the companies. Second, the ring-fencing legislation under the ICB which requires each large UK bank to separate its retail banking activity from the rest of its business is also challenging for us. Third, the ruling of Supreme Court of India endorsing the right to privacy as an intrinsic part of the right to life and personal liberty under Article 21 of the Indian Constitution. As per the judgement, we as RBS India are committed towards the same and ensure the compliance with right to privacy of the employees’ data.

Does the team use any “legal tech” products and do you find them a helpful management device? We use Manupatra to keep our self updated with the judgements, updates and legal database. We also use the online tool VROOM, developed by global law firm DLA Piper. It helps us to share the contract templates, guidance notes and legal updates with the requisite stakeholders within RBS. Further to have good governance practices within all the business functions, we also use PwC’s “Enforce Plus” tool which helps internally to keep track of compliances with all the respective laws, rules and regulations as applicable to the company. What are the key steps to take in order to increase trust in an in-house legal team within a company? The biggest step we always take is to reach out to our stakeholders; give them confidence, give them a patient hearing and understand the finer details about the problem they have. We are available 24/7 to provide the requisite support whenever our stakeholders need us: taking calls, responding to their queries, meeting them, taking that extra step to interact with and understand the business, their problems, what they are doing and how the provision of law can be brought in to support the business decision. We proactively take that step to reach out to our key stakeholders, asking them the question “how can we help you?” Further, in order to advise the business correctly and in a time bound manner, our legal team is fully updated on the changing legislation and new case laws: research is done in-house whereby the entire team in involved in brain-storming on a point of law before a sound legal advice is given to the business on critical problems. Once a position on law is taken by our legal team, we own complete responsibility and accountability. This is a continuous journey whereby a gradual transformation happened when people started believing that the legal department is fully integrated into the business. The objective and goal of both the business and legal is common which is to run the business in most professional and legally compliant manner. Resultantly, our legal team is well recognised as a “Trusted Business Partner”.