Jack Hunt

Key responsibilities:

• Providing legal advice to the Wealth & Personal Banking (WPB) division covering the banks' retail banking, wealth management and private banking product offerings across various distribution channels, including deposits, payments and FX, secured and unsecured lending, general insurance, structured products, lombard lending, ETFs, mFunds, and shares.
• Spearheading key regulatory projects and preparing submissions to industry consultations (ASIC, APRA, ABA).
• Expert knowledge of the ePayments Code, Unfair Contract Terms regime, Anti-Hawking regime and draft Scams Prevention Framework.
• In-depth knowledge of the AML/CTF Act, Spam Act, Australian Privacy Principles.
• Legal lead and SME on scams and fraud for WPB, working across functions and jurisdictions with financial crime, risk & compliance, customer relations and customer advocate teams.
• Handling dispute resolution processes, including providing advice in respect of sophisticated scam complaints at IDR and EDR and other litigated complaints, including via NCAT, VCAT, QCAT.
• Managing various complex litigated matters and instructing external counsel.
• Settling disputes through alternative dispute resolution methods to avoid protracted court battles.
• Negotiating various commercial agreements.
• Advising on state-based mortgage and property related matters.
• Supporting colleagues with complex deceased estate and probate matters.
• Supporting, managing and instructing junior members of the legal team.
• Supporting the WPB business with remediation projects.
• Managing and preparing internal legal risk reports for the EXCO, Board and Regional WPB Legal teams.

Key responsibilities:

• Supporting and advising HSBC’s wealth and personal banking business for the MENAT region (encompassing UAE, Bahrain, Oman, Egypt, Qatar & Turkey) in respect of the entire suite of retail, wealth and private banking product offerings on either an advised, execution-only or reverse enquiry basis.
• Negotiating numerous Bancassurance and Fund Distribution Agreements.
• Lombard Lending – in-depth knowledge and assistance with the entire product launch, documentation and roll out of this new investment financing facility to our premier HNW customers in the UAE.
• Customer Experience Complaints – regional lead lawyer for all escalated CE wealth and insurance related complaints.
• Leading lawyer for private banking matters for our DIFC, ADGM (UAE free-zone jurisdictions) and Kuwait PB branches;
• Engagement with business stakeholders and legal counterparts in HSBC’s offshore Private Banking booking centres in Switzerland, Jersey and Singapore;
• Product Governance – Frequent attendance to numerous Product Governance Committee meetings for both retail & wealth as a key risk steward advising in respect on new product approvals, periodic reviews sales quality & customer exits.
• Risk Reporting - WPB MENAT lead risk reporting lawyer responsible for preparing monthly and quarterly risk reports cascaded to Senior Management in Group Legal & the EXCO Risk Management Meeting (RMM);
• Preparing various policies & procedures and running training sessions for front-line staff.

My experience largely entailed front-end insurance advisory work but also involved a variety of broader commercial & transactional matters with a focus on the financial services sector including ad hoc company secretarial responsibilities.

Key responsibilities and workstreams included:

• Insurance Advisory – provision of complex front-end insurance advice to onshore & offshore general insurers, reinsurers, life insurers, brokers & agents in respect of the Australian financial services legislative & regulatory regime, including around licensing and prudential requirements for underwriting and distributing insurance products in Australia.
• Policy Wording Reviews & Benchmarking
• Advice re: Insurance Linked Securities (ILS) and Cat bonds.
• Commercial Agreements – drafting, negotiating and finalising various distribution agreements, data supply agreements, NDAs, MOUs and a Customer Loan Vehicle Agreement for key clients.
• Data Privacy – advising clients in respect of Freedom of Information (FOI) obligations and preparing updated privacy policies, privacy collection statements & PDSs for financial services clients in line with the requirements of the Privacy Act;
• Company Secretarial Duties – managing numerous financial services client’s corporate governance and disclosure obligations in accordance with the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth).
• Transactional work – conducting legal due diligence, drafting and negotiating complex legal documentation and general transaction management including preparing red flag reports.
• Shareholders' deeds and other ancillary documents, which incorporated complex funding mechanisms, share buy-back arrangements and detailed employee equity plans.
• Litigation - managing complex court proceedings relating to warranty & indemnity disputes. Drafting numerous advices and response letters, preparing prescribed court documents, reviewing expert evidence (including company valuations) and briefing counsel.

Key responsibilities included:

• Drafting and negotiating various commercial agreements, including tailored distribution, licensee and binder agreements, as well as IT agreements, NDAs and MOUs.
• Advising stakeholders in respect of Chapter 7 of the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth) and the Insurance Contracts Act 1984 (Cth).
• Advising the business on escalated complaints (IDR and EDR).
• Assisting underwriters with drafting bespoke policy wordings.
• Reviewing marketing & promotions materials in compliance with various state and territory laws.

• Completed the graduate program at QBE where I rotated through underwriting, claims and legal teams.
• The program provided me with both internal and external accelerated underwriting training, and by the end, I had attained my Certificate IV in General Insurance, ANZIIF (Associate) CIP accreditation.
• As an underwriter, my role involved the risk assessment of various asset types in order to tailor policy wording terms and conditions in order to mitigate risk exposure and liability undertaken by QBE.
• My responsibilities included drafting and negotiating terms and conditions with brokers and binding cover, once settled.
• Full underwriting authority up to AUD$20 million and responsible for my own portfolio and panel of 30 Aon insurance brokers.

• Elected Vice President of YIPs, a non-profit organisation dedicated to assisting younger insurance professionals (7,000 at the time) throughout Australia and New Zealand with their careers in insurance, and to provide a platform for such young professionals to develop their business relationships through educational and networking events
• In this role, I chaired our monthly committee meetings where the committee discussed and coordinated various networking events, educational seminars, and soft skills training sessions.
• My success in this role stemmed from my willingness to work collaboratively and my ability to foster effective working relationships.
• As a non-for-profit organisation, YIPs is heavily reliant on corporate sponsorship, which required close management of our national sponsors and driving general business strategy and relationships.
• This role allowed me to develop my professional profile within the insurance industry and expand my external networks across Australia.