Team size:    70

What are the most significant cases, projects andor transactions that you and/or your legal team have recently been involved in?

As CLO at CEC Bank, a strategic credit institution in Romania, I have had the privilege of overseeing several high-impact legal and regulatory projects that reflect the bank’s growing role in both domestic and international financial markets. One of the most significant recent transactions was:

The update and expansion of CEC Bank’s Medium-Term Note (MTN) Program, followed by the successful issuance of €300mn in Senior Non-Preferred Eligible Notes, intended to qualify as MREL instruments. This transaction marked a key milestone in the bank’s capital markets strategy, increasing the MTN program ceiling from €600mn to €1.5bn, with drawdown options in RON, EUR, and USD. The issuance was supported by Erste Group Bank and ING Bank as Joint Bookrunners, and BT Capital Partners as Co-Manager.

This project involved complex cross-border legal coordination, regulatory compliance, and close collaboration with international legal counsel. It also demonstrated the legal team’s ability to support strategic funding initiatives aligned with the bank’s long-term growth and resilience objectives.

In addition to capital markets work, our legal team continues to be actively involved in: supporting the integration of entities within the CEC Bank Group, including the acquisition of a majority stake in the Rural Credit Guarantee Fund (FGCR); advising on regulatory compliance and governance matters in line with evolving EU banking regulations and ESG reporting standards; and, managing litigation and risk mitigation strategies in a dynamic legal and economic environment. These initiatives reflect our commitment to ensuring legal robustness while enabling innovation and sustainable growth.

How do you approach managing legal aspects during periods of instability or crisis to ensure the organisation’s resilience?

It is very important to adopt a proactive legal risk assessment to identify potential vulnerabilities, develop mitigation strategies, prioritise risks based on their potential impact on the business and allocate resources accordingly.  

You must also develop a comprehensive crisis management plan and clearly define roles and responsibilities for legal team members during a crisis. Establishing communication protocols to ensure timely and effective information sharing it is also crucial.

One of the paramount importance elements during a period of instability is to foster close collaboration between the legal team and other key stakeholders, such as executive leadership, operations, and communications teams and to ensure that the legal team is involved in decision-making processes from the outset of a crisis. Providing timely legal advice and guidance to support the organisation’s response efforts is also a daily priority for us.

Not less important is to conduct regular post-crisis reviews to identify lessons learned and areas for improvement and update crisis management plans and legal policies accordingly. I personally encourage ongoing training and development for my legal team members to stay up to date on relevant legal issues and best practices.