18 www.canadianlawyermag.com/inhouse
we've set. However, it is tough when all banks
are competing for the same customers. When
you have unstable economic conditions, it
makes it hard to support clients through good
times and bad, but the history of this bank is
that we can and that we will. We have a deep
knowledge in our industry verticals and our
receptor verticals and we use that to be
relatively conservative on credit so we can give
good loans, but it is challenging because our
customers are struggling, so we have to be
flexible and we have to learn new ways of
doing business in order to support them.
Lastly, the pressures on banking as a sector
are challenging but also really exciting. We
have changing consumer desires that are
driving different players to join the industry
and we also have new payments players that
can offer a lot of services and we have things
such as open banking and the focus on
privacy and data offerings, which to us is a
huge opportunity as we are a disruptor bank.
We're looking at the opportunities that we
have as an organization to partner with
companies and to gain access to the data of
our clients that we can then use to offer them
better products and services.
INHOUSE: In what ways does your
legal department support
the organization as a whole?
CUDJOE: The department as we've configured
it in the past number of months is comprised of
legal, regulatory compliance and investigations.
Together, we support and help manage legal,
regulatory compliance and criminal risk across
the whole organization so we can do so as one
team in a very collaborative way. We do that by
supporting the organization as we serve our
clients on a day-to-day basis, as we participate
in capital markets, as a public company, as we
receive and protect and use client data and as a
purchaser of goods and services. Needless to
say, our department is involved in how we
run the business and where we want the
business to go.
We are involved in every single strategic
initiative, so as we expand our business
geographically and functionally, we're there; as
we develop our products to meet emerging
client and consumer needs and demands,
we're there; as we partner with third parties to
deliver against strategic goals in digital and
otherwise, we're there; and as we work to
understand emerging regulatory trends and
VIEW
2020
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SPECIAL REPORT
