Marcy S. Cohen is Managing Director and Chief Legal Officer for the Americas for ING Group’s structured finance, commercial banking and financial markets businesses in the U.S., Mexico, Brazil and Argentina. ING Group is a global financial institution based in the Netherlands with shares listed on the New York Stock Exchange and as of December 31, 2012, had total consolidated assets of approximately EUR 1.2 trillion.
Ms. Cohen serves as a member of the ING Americas Regional Management Team responsible for ING Bank’s strategic direction and management throughout North and South America. She also serves as a member of the Americas Operational Risk and Compliance Committees. She regularly conducts risk assessments for each of the firm’s major business lines and develops mitigation measures to best manage the identified risks. Internal audit reports to her in connection with special investigations and audits.
She currently leads ING’s global efforts to achieve compliance with the complex new regulatory structure imposed on large global financial institutions by Dodd Frank, FATCA and Basel III. She was instrumental in moving all of ING’s swap and derivatives activities with U.S. persons from the firm’s European and Asian branches to the New York office enhancing revenues and profitability. She is also responsible for various ongoing strategic initiatives and is currently managing a think tank charged with creating new entities, business lines and revenue streams in the U.S.
Earlier in her career, Ms. Cohen honed her business and legal skills working in similar senior roles for various other major global financial institutions such as BNP Paribas, WestLB and Republic N.Y. Corporation. In each of these positions she was deeply involved in major business and strategic initiatives and has become well versed in the business and legal aspects of complex financial products such as derivatives, structured finance, corporate finance and investment management. She successfully navigated through complex high profile cross-border matters involving new and existing businesses such as the establishment of a private banking subsidiary in Switzerland, the acquisition of an English gold bouillon bank, the acquisition of a private equity firm in Japan, the resolution of regulatory investigations and third party claims related to the alleged window dressing of financial statements by several major Japanese insurance companies through the use of derivatives, cross border money laundering and sanctioned countries matters and the restructure of several major manufacturing companies as well as Greek shipping companies. Working proactivity and calmly under pressure in high stakes matters she has created and successfully managed crisis management teams consisting of public relations firms, executive management and attorneys.
Ms. Cohen has held leadership roles in various professional organizations and is a frequent speaker at industry conferences. She has been active in a variety of civic and charitable activities serving on a number of not-for-profit boards and providing support to organizations involved in the arts as well as those providing educational and medical support to disadvantaged children.
What sets Ms. Cohen apart from many of her peers is her business and global focus and ability to build consensus. She has experience working on transactional and regulatory matters in Europe, Asia and the Americas. Her strong business focus and high cultural fluency enable her to function at a high level of effectiveness on a global level.