About

FIS is the world’s largest global provider dedicated to financial technology solutions, empowering the financial world with software, services, consulting and outsourcing solutions. Howard Wallis is associate general counsel for Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa and heads the regional legal team, which is comprised of eleven lawyers and three other members. Explaining the structure of the team, Wallis says: ‘The team is largely structured on a geographical basis, though we retain flexibility in the team for lawyers to cover deals outside of their sub-region according to the workflow levels in each sub-region’. On top of the Middle East and Africa regions being recently added to the team’s jurisdiction, they now also support both major business divisions of FIS, namely investment banking and retail banking solutions. In terms of significant company transactions, Wallis and the team were credited for their involvement on the divestment of FIS’ Kingstar China and Ambit Retail Banking businesses. As well as multimillion-dollar client transactions, including for state and newly-licensed banks in India, FIS deals with the leading banks in the Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Singapore and Australia. Explaining the team ethos, Wallis says: ‘“Team” is the absolute key word for us in terms of culture – that means not only working on deals as a team but also creating a culture whereby every member feels they are part of both the legal team and the business team that they support, no matter whether they sit as a sole legal counsel in a geography or sit alongside other lawyers. We are business partners and need to work seamlessly with the business, whilst at the same time retaining independence as a legal team’. Another key member of the Singapore-based team is Sachin Paun, senior legal counsel for Asia Pacific.