This role involves providing legal and regulatory advisory services to the Gift City IBU, with a focus on legal risk management and Anti-Money Laundering (AML) / Know Your Customer (KYC) surveillance. This includes monitoring AML alerts and thematic reports, and supporting AML/KYC requirements such as watch list updates and regulatory reporting (STR/CTR/NTR/FMR).
Key Accountabilities
Business Enabler:
- Provide pragmatic legal advice to business and support functions within the IBU.
- Manage legal risk and achieve business objectives by acting as a business partner.
- Manage relationships with external legal advisors, ensuring high performance and appropriate billing.
- Coordinate the effective management of legal suits against the Bank.
Drafting and Negotiation:
- Review and negotiate contracts, agreements, and policies related to banking, vendor contracts, and employment matters for the IBU.
- Effectively manage outsourcing contracts and mortgages.
- Innovate and standardize documents for customer-friendliness.
Anticipate and Manage Legal Risk:
- Identify, evaluate, and address legal risks in transactions.
- Develop transparent and legally sound processes and policies for business and support units.
- Conduct risk reviews and develop procedures to reduce legal risk.
- Build strong relationships with internal stakeholders, including the parent entity team in Singapore and affiliates.
Think Strategically:
- Keep teams and units updated on changes in law.
AML Alert / Surveillance Analyst:
- Timely monitoring and analysis of AML alerts generated by the transaction surveillance system.
- Ensure timely and effective disposition of alerts and thematic reports.
- Provide support for AML/KYC requirements, including watch list updates and regulatory reporting (STR/CTR/NTR/FMR).
- Assist with ad-hoc AML/KYC activities like thematic studies, project work, and automation.
Job Duties and Responsibilities
Legal support to Institutional Banking Group (IBG) and Global Transaction Services:
- Develop a strong understanding of banking products and services for IBG and GTS.
- Advise the Gift City IBU on transactions including ECB, foreign currency loans, leverage buyouts, and sub-line financing.
- Possess detailed knowledge of factoring, Supply Chain Finance, Cash Management Services, and Payment Aggregator concepts.
- Understand factoring, reverse factoring, and fintech platforms like Treds.
- Conduct legal research and analysis on relevant laws, regulations, and industry best practices (e.g., UCP 600, URDG, ISBP).
- Provide day-to-day legal support and documentation to IBG and support units.
- Handle lending and borrowing transactions, including drafting, reviewing, analyzing, and negotiating facility and security documents.
- Experience with escrow mandates for IPO, Rights issue, and offer for sale.
- Support vetting of contracts such as NDAs, service contracts, leases, outsourcing contracts, and partnership agreements.
- Standardize legal draft templates and simplify processes.
- Draft policies based on legal/regulatory requirements.
- Review and standardize documentation annually, streamlining processes for business and support units.
- Guide on customer complaints, draft/vet responses for senior management and regulators, and conduct legal training.
- Adhere to legal risk management policies and prescribed legal standards.
- Identify and highlight legal risks, providing mitigating solutions.
- Liaise with consultants/law firms and advocates.
Legal support to Global Financial Markets and Debt Capital Market:
- Draft, review, negotiate, and finalize ISDA schedules, credit support annexes, GMRA, CDEA, terms and conditions, and documentation for Initial Margin/Variation Margin with DBS/DBIL counterparties.
- Draft, review, negotiate, and finalize documents for debt capital markets (e.g., term sheet, debenture trust deed, security documents).
- Perform legal due diligence and authority/capacity checks for counterparties.
- Prepare deviation tables, pre-execution checklists, due diligence memos, and confirm MAMs entries.
- Assist with CCU, Ops, and BMS queries.
- Develop standards, playbooks, guides, and memos aligned with HO documents.
- Responsible for netting evaluation and analysis according to IFSCA regulations.
- Negotiate customer agreements with clients/external counterparties (e.g., brokerage, electronic trading, central clearing, vendor agreements).
- Review/prepare product term sheets for funded and unfunded products.
- Provide legal, regulatory, and contractual advice to internal clients (front, middle, and back offices of T&M).
- Collaborate with Compliance to interpret regulations and policies.
- Establish, review, and update internal rules, policies, and guidelines to manage legal and documentary risks.
Legal support to CBG and Support functions:
- Provide practical legal advice and support to business and support units (branches, banking products, mortgages, operations, HR, procurement, real estate, technology, infrastructure), ensuring legal risk mitigation.
- Draft and review legal documentation (e.g., leases, NDAs, supplier, employment, outsourcing contracts, partnership arrangements).
- Manage customer complaints, including vetting responses for senior management and regulators.
- Develop and execute litigation strategy.
- Adhere to Bank legal risk management policies and industry standards, proactively identifying and mitigating legal risks.
- Adapt to evolving legal landscapes and customer needs.
- Maintain litigation reports and liaise with external legal counsel.
AML Alert / Surveillance support:
- Monitor and analyze AML alerts and thematic reports according to bank policies.
- Ensure timely and effective disposition of alerts.
- Prepare GoS for STR filings.
- Knowledge of regulatory reportings (STR, CTR, NTR, CWTR).
- Prepare MIS for trend analysis, escalation, and review.
- Contribute to AML automation and identify new process requirements.
- Communicate with BU/SU on monitoring and surveillance matters.
- Prepare ad hoc presentations or MIS.
- Stay updated on Indian and international AML/KYC regulations.
- Possess strong organizational skills, ability to multi-task, prioritize, and work independently.
Required Experience
- Qualified lawyer with at least 2-3 years of post-qualification experience in Corporate and Institutional Banking.
- Experience in an AML & KYC Unit preferred.
- Good knowledge of IFSCA, RBI, and SEBI guidelines.
- Strong academic background.
- Excellent written and verbal communication, analytical, and interpersonal skills.
- Flexible and adaptable.
- Proficient in MS Excel, PowerPoint, Word, Outlook.
- Solid organizational skills, attention to detail, and multi-tasking abilities.
- Project management skills.
Education / Preferred Qualifications
- A Graduate with LLB/LLM or other recognized legal degree with experience in banking or financial services industry (Corporate Banking, Commercial Banking, Transaction Banking).
- Certification in AML/KYC/Compliance Monitoring preferred.
Core Competencies
- Skilled commercial lawyer and negotiator, able to achieve pragmatic solutions while managing legal, regulatory, and internal policy risks.
- Ability to work independently on structured and complex transactions.
- Substantial experience with general commercial/contractual/transactional work and complex deals.
- Effective communication and negotiation skills, ability to build relationships.
- Regional, multi-jurisdictional, or cross-border experience.
- Excellent diagnostic skills and rigorous problem-solving approach.
- Strong analytical, communication, negotiation, drafting, and writing skills.
- Ability to think creatively and identify innovative solutions.
- Strong formal presentation skills.
- Ability to identify and forecast legal & compliance risks and find solutions.
- Strong analytical and surveillance skills.
Technical Competencies
- Good knowledge of Indian banking laws (e.g., Factoring Act 2011, India Contract Act 1872, Companies Act 2013, Transfer of Property, Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code 2016, Banking Regulation Act 1949, and regulations from IFSCA, RBI, SEBI).
- Ability to grasp new legal trends and strong research abilities.
- Strong proficiency in advanced MS Excel (Macros and Pivots), MS Access, MS Word, and basic MS PowerPoint.
Work Relationship
- Superiors: Effective upward communication and initiative.
- Peers / External Parties: Collaborative work with stakeholders in Legal, Business, Compliance, and other functions, sharing knowledge and helping others, with an open mind to different viewpoints.
- Ability to work closely with stakeholders to manage KYC/AML risks effectively.
