Vice President, Legal – Personal Banking Jobs in Toronto, Canada at Equitable Bank
Enterprise Legal Leadership – Personal Banking Portfolio (Primary Focus)
Provide strategic legal leadership for the Bank’s 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 Bank’s values.
Legal Risk Governance & Regulatory Engagement
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.
Executive Decision Making & Governance
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.
People Leadership & Legal Capability Building
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.
Corporate Initiatives & Strategic Transactions
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.
External Counsel Oversight & Cost Management
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.
Let’s Talk About You!
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…
Title: Vice President, Legal – Personal Banking
Company: Equitable Bank
Location: Toronto, Canada
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