Karla is a Senior Associate at Consortium Legal – Honduras. With more than 19 years of experience in the financial sector, she specializes in Banking & Finance, Corporate Law, Fintech, and Compliance.

She advises local and international financial institutions on regulatory, corporate, and contractual matters, as well as on a wide range of banking products and transactions, including local and cross-border loans, consumer banking, credit cards, and securities issuances. She also advises companies on commercial contracts, public and private construction projects, corporate restructurings, and complex corporate matters.

In the Fintech sector, she has assisted companies providing payment processing, payment gateways, e-wallets, retail payment systems, banking software, and credit card processors. She has also designed compliance and risk management programs for AML, CTF, and anti-corruption policies for multinational corporations and financial institutions.

Her background includes serving as Head of the Legal Department at Citi Financial Group in Honduras, where she established and led the legal function for corporate banking, consumer banking, and credit card operations, as well as developing corporate governance and legal risk policies. She was also a consultant at the World Bank in Washington, D.C., working on legal frameworks and access to economic, credit, and labor markets. Earlier in her career, she worked on Human Rights projects, including participation in an inter-institutional commission that achieved legislative reforms against child trafficking and exploitation.

Practice Areas

• Banking & Finance
• Fintech & Financial Technology
• Compliance & Corporate Governance
• Anti-Money Laundering and Anti-Corruption

• Advised a regional non-banking personal loans group on its corporate restructuring in Honduras.
• Advised a financial institution and the Financial Innovation Roundtable of the Central Bank of Honduras on regulatory reforms for electronic transfers and payments via ACH.
• Counsel to a regional financial institution on regulatory and technological requirements for financial product offerings.
• Advised several international financial institutions on cross-border operations in Honduras.
• Legal counsel to Fintech companies on the implementation and offering of financial technology services to banks and clients.
• Advised international NGOs on corporate and contractual matters.
• Collaborated with Trace International on compliance documentation updates for Honduras.
• Collaborated with the World Bank on Doing Business reports for Honduras.

• Máster in International Legal Studies (LL.M.), Georgetown University Law Center, United States (2007)
• Degree in Legal Sciences, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Honduras (UNAH), Honduras (2004)

• Member, Honduran Bar Association