Vice President, Legal – Personal Banking

• Provide strategic legal leadership for the Banks Personal Banking businesses including mortgages reverse mortgages lending products payments deposits wealth channels sales marketing and distribution partnerships.
• Serve as the primary legal advisor to senior executives and business leaders on matters involving consumer protection banking regulation product design marketing distribution and customer outcomes.
• Partner with business leaders in setting strategy and enabling execution through pragmatic solution oriented legal advice that balances legal risk regulatory expectations and commercial objectives.
• Interpret and advise on complex legislative and regulatory requirements (e.g. Bank Act consumer protection OSFI guidelines payments privacy CASL AML/ATF) including material regulatory change enforcement trends and supervisory expectations.
• Provide executive level oversight of consumer facing communications marketing materials disclosures and customer documentation to ensure compliance fairness and alignment with the Banks values.

• Own legal risk oversight for the Personal Banking portfolio ensuring risks are proactively identified escalated mitigated and reported in alignment with enterprise risk frameworks.
• Act as a senior point of escalation for high risk novel or ambiguous legal matters including issues with potential reputational regulatory or strategic impact.
• Maintain strong working relationships with regulators industry bodies and external stakeholders supporting effective regulatory engagement and issue resolution.
• Act as representative of the Bank on committees or organizations such as Canadian Bankers Association Fintechs Canada FDATA Canadian Prepaid Providers Organization and other government relations engagement.
• Advise the Executive Team on emerging legal regulatory and litigation risks that may impact business strategy operating models or long-term growth.

Exercise delegated authority from the General Counsel for go / no-go decisions on products initiatives and partnerships within Personal Banking.

Provide formal legal signoff on initiatives with material legal regulatory or conduct implications.

Contribute to enterprise governance forums crisis response issue management and regulatory remediation efforts as required.

• Lead mentor and develop senior legal professionals and teams supporting Personal Banking fostering a high performing commercially minded legal function.
• Set direction and expectations for legal support models ensuring appropriate delegation consistency of advice and capability depth across the team.
• Build strong cross functional partnerships with Compliance Risk Audit Operations Product and Technology leaders.

• Provide executive legal oversight for corporate initiatives impacting Personal Banking including new product launches major transformations strategic partnerships and platform changes.
• Lead or oversee complex high value contractual negotiations and strategic agreements with external partners service providers and intermediaries.
• Advise on enterprise wide initiatives requiring Personal Banking legal input including M&A integration new market entry and significant operational change.

• Set strategy for the use of external counsel within the Personal Banking portfolio including engagement decisions budget oversight and performance management.
• Ensure external legal spend is effectively managed and aligned with complexity risk and internal capability.
• Provide executive legal oversight for major commercial arrangements strategic partnerships outsourcing and platform agreements supporting Personal Banking.

• University degree in law with 15 years of practicing experience with a primary focus on corporate law contracts and agreements.
• University degree in business or commerce and/or 5 years of progressive management experience with substantial experience in financial services banking or another highly regulated consumerfacing industry.
• Comprehensive understanding of ethics conflict contract law provincial/federal legislation applicable foreign legislation and complex business agreements.
• Familiarity with risk management regulatory compliance and legal issues and business planning strategies.
• Advanced skills in interpreting analyzing and composing legal strategies.
• Thorough knowledge of legal and regulatory requirements applicable to the enterprise including among others the Bank Act the Trust and Loan Companies Act the Competition Act the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions the Canada Deposit Insurance Corporation the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada etc.
• Comprehensive knowledge of products distribution channels and associated business processes.
• Strong business acumen and the ability to make decisions in times of uncertainty.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills with the ability to precisely interpret complex compliance and legal concept and the ability to simplify the complicated messages.
• Working knowledge of Microsoft Office and problem resolution.
• Project Management skills