Mr Azel left Hunton and Williams in late 2004 to become chief legal counsel of the BBVA Private Bank in Miami, later becoming Chief Legal Counsel for StanChart Securities International  and then head of legal for Standard Chartered Bank's Private Bank and as senior legal regulatory counsel for Standard Chartered Bank. Earlier in his career he was an associate at K&L Gates and Greenberg Traurig.

Regulatory, compliance and crime risk management

Mr Azel has represented financial institutions as general counsel or as outside counsel on regulatory and compliance, financial crime risk management, and internal investigations and enforcement matters, with an emphasis on the US Bank Secrecy Act, anti-money laundering as well as economic sanctions laws and regulations. It is anticipated that he will focus on developing the firm's regulatory and compliance practice.Nearly one-third of the firm's top clients are financial institutions and other financial services companies, according to the company.

Cyber security challenges for clients

Mr Azel explained that financial institutions were going to continue to face pressures in regulatory compliance and particularly in the cyber security space: ‘Regulators are increasingly viewing cybersecurity as a component of compliance, with anti-money laundering laws and regulations…Cybersecurity breeches reveal information about the identity of customers that can then be used by criminal actors to misrepresent their identities to other financial institutions to launder money.’