Financial Documentation Case Studies
Cognia designed, implemented, and managed an integrated shared service operating model, with dedicated teams operating as a seamless extension of the bank’s in-house legal teams in the UK and New York.
Challenges:
Our client, a Tier-1 UK headquartered global investment bank faced high costs of onshore internal derivatives and structured products lawyers spending excess time on tasks and work-types which were better suited to an appropriate offshore location. They were looking for a provider and location to operate as an integrated extension of the investment bank’s in-house legal function led from the UK.
Solution:
Cognias delivered 25+ South Africa-based legal professionals, aligned with the client’s language, legal, and time-zone needs, providing expert support across diverse legal activities
- Negotiation and operational support for multi-jurisdictional, multi-governing law BAU derivative agreements, covering both pre- and post-execution stages;
- Drafting, reviewing, and executing structured product issuance documentation across 16 global programmes, in both English and German;
- Commercial contracts: Supporting the central legal team with commercial contract negotiations;
- Regulatory reform: Delivering project-based legal support aligned to evolving regulatory requirements; and
- Flexible resourcing: Supplying short-term or interim legal professionals to meet fluctuating demand.
Outcome:
- Achieved £5 million in savings over the first five years (£1 million annually) by transitioning 10 FTE roles to Cognia’s managed legal services model within the global markets legal division of a UK-headquartered banking group.
- Realised an 80% cost saving per issuance compared to external counsel by adopting Cognia’s managed legal services model in the structured products business of a global banking group.
Global Investment Bank
Challenges:
Our client, a global investment bank was looking for a dedicated managed legal service to accelerate the transition of a significant portion of its credit and lending documentation work volume to a better value delivery centre, and chose Cognia in South Africa. The client wanted access to excellent talent at competitive rates, operating in a time zone which is effective for supporting the UK/Europe and the US and was able to integrate as extension of the investment bank’s loans legal function which included its India and APAC operations.
Above all they wanted an effective governance and reporting model to provide them with the necessary insights and data to generate meaningful MI and monitor performance against agreed SLAs and success metrics.
Solution:
Cognia designed, built and implemented an integrated operating model structured to operate as a direct extension of the bank’s UK, India and APAC-based legal teams. Blended teams of financial services and loans lawyers were deployed to handle the agreed volumes of legal work under a dedicated managed legal service pilot. The goal was to accelerate the transition of increasing workloads to Cognia’s delivery centre in Cape Town.
At the outset, Cognia established a clearly defined operating model and governance framework. This model successfully transitioned from a pilot into a business-as-usual (BAU) shared services solution, one that continues to evolve and scale.
The service is now expanding to include adjacent areas, such as Trade Finance and Global Payments.
Outcome:
Within four months of launching Cognia’s loans service, the Credit and Lending Legal division saw an 85% reduction in required oversight from the bank.
