Navigating in-house support across borders: Our journey with a global financial institution

Starting strong in Hong Kong

Our collaboration began in 2020, when Konexo was engaged to support the institution’s Hong Kong operations. Our initial mandate involved reviewing and negotiating uncommitted facility documentation, working closely with the client’s legal team and other local stakeholders. This partnership developed a customised guidance manual, tailored to the scope and parameters of our services. 

In just a year, our role expanded to include the review of committed lending documentation and certain corporate authorizations, to ensure alignment with the client’s internal lending policies and specific functional needs.

Scaling success: Expansion into Singapore and Australia

Building on our success in Hong Kong, the client extended our remit to include Singapore and Australia. Drawing on observations and experience gained from the Hong Kong engagement, we developed jurisdiction-specific guidance manuals that embedded global best practices while respecting local regulatory nuances. Today, we are entrusted to serve as the client’s dedicated loans negotiation team in these regions, operating as a seamless extension of their in-house team. 

Additional projects – Beyond day to-day support

Capitalising on the knowledge and experience our team has garnered over the years, Konexo has also contributed to several strategic initiatives, including:

LIBOR Transition: Assisting with the transition of the client’s existing portfolio of contracts containing GBP and USD LIBOR (London Interbank Offered Rate) benchmark rates to alternative risk-free rates in line with global regulatory timelines, following the cessation of LIBOR.

Due Diligence: Undertaking due diligence reviews in connection with synthetic collateralized loan obligation transactions, with a focus on ascertaining restrictions on the transferability of debt and disclosure of information within the facility documentation. Such reviews enable the client to make informed decisions on whether a particular loan is suitable to be included in the replenishment exercise.

What sets Konexo apart?

Our unique offering continues to prove advantageous, with the following efficiencies:

Global best practices: Exposure to diverse jurisdictional frameworks allows us to identify and implement global best practices, offering insights that may be less visible to jurisdiction-specific teams.

Operational efficiency: Our ability to provide the necessary resources and support to the client across the various regions helps streamline their international operations by alleviating the burden of routine, policy-driven tasks. This allows the client’s in-house team to redirect their focus towards enterprise-level strategic priorities, confident that day-to-day legal processes are being managed with precision and consistency.

Scalability and agility: Our flexible team structure allows us to adapt quickly to evolving client’s needs, effectively and efficiently. Whether expanding into new markets or responding to systemic changes, we can provide tailored support that meets the client's specific requirements.

Quality assurance: Upholding rigorous quality standards across all jurisdictions is the cornerstone of our service, regardless of geography and notwithstanding time zone challenges. This dedication to quality assurance has earned us the trust and confidence of our client’s in-house team and their business stakeholders.

Technology-enabled service: Technology plays a key role in how we deliver managed services at Konexo Malaysia. Leveraging our document management and workflow integration platforms, we track and manage critical data across jurisdictions and workstreams— such as project progress, resource allocation, and timelines. This enables us to generate meaningful reports and management information (MI) that support clients in planning, resourcing, and pricing their work more effectively.

Rather than relying on automation alone, our approach is grounded in practical, data-driven collaboration— helping clients gain visibility, improve workflow management, and make confident, informed decisions.

Client reflections: Trust earned through delivery

The client’s feedback underscores the value of our engagement:

"Biggest strengths of the team – quality (technical and commercial) as demonstrated by day-in-day-out with our business stakeholders; consistency (e.g. even when there has been turnover within the team, the quality remains steady), flexibility, and cost effectiveness."

"Konexo has earned the trust from our business stakeholders – they were initially very doubtful on ['offshoring' support] but to date, we have received nothing but consistent positive feedback from our business stakeholders."

Looking ahead

As our partnership continues to grow, we remain steadfast in our commitment to delivering high-calibre and impact-oriented solutions. Our goal is to empower our client’s global operations with managed services support that is not only consistent and reliable, but also forward-thinking and adaptable to the demands of a dynamic financial landscape.

This article has been published as part of Konexo Insights: AI, legal transformation, post M&A integration and flexible in-house legal resourcing.