Biography: Banking

Rafael A Morales is the managing partner in SyCip Salazar Hernandez & Gatmaitan, the largest law firm in the Philippines, and before that the head of its banking, finance & securities department.

Mr Morales is a professorial lecturer in banking and financial law at the College of Law of the University of the Philippines, as well as the author of two books (The Philippine General Banking Law (Annotated) and The Philippine Securities Regulation Code (Annotated)) and numerous legal articles. Among his many recognitions, he is cited in Euromoney Legal Media Group's Guide to the World's Leading Banking Lawyers, and included in Asian Legal Business' list of 100 pre-eminent Asia-Pacific lawyers.

He is a member of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines and the Philippine Bar Association, as well as the Financial Executives Institute of the Philippines, the New York State Bar Association, and the American Bar Association. He was president of the Inter-Pacific Bar Association.

Mr Morales finished his Bachelor of Arts in Political Science (cum laude, 1970) at the University of the Philippines, where he also took his Bachelor of Laws (cum laude and class valedictorian, 1974). He holds a Master of Laws (1978) from the University of Michigan, where he was a DeWitt Fellow. While in the United States, he trained as a foreign attorney at Rosenman Colin Freund Lewis & Cohen in New York City (1978-1979). He later on became a foreign attorney at Anderson Mori & Rabinowitz in Tokyo (1984-1986).