Samantha Cuyle is a Manager focusing on policy within the MFSA’s Fintech Supervision Function. She holds a M.A. in Financial Services from the University of Malta. The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the authors at the time of writing and do not necessarily reflect those of the MFSA, ESMA or EBA. Any errors or inaccuracies are attributable exclusively to the authors.

Christos is an Assistant Director within the Financial Technology (‘FinTech’) Department at the Bermuda Monetary Authority (‘BMA’). Christos is responsible for regulation, licensing, and supervision of the FinTech sector, particularly digital asset businesses and issuers. He is directly involved in developing, implementing, and administering the legislative and regulatory frameworks under the Digital Asset Business Act 2018 (‘DABA’) and the Digital Asset Issuance Act 2020 (‘DAIA’). He is a legal professional with more than twelve years of experience in the financial services industry, focusing on FinTech for the past nine years, including five years at the BMA. Prior to joining the BMA, Christos worked at the Malta Financial Services Authority (‘MFSA’), where he was heavily involved in developing and implementing Malta’s legislative and regulatory Virtual Financial Assets (‘VFA’) framework. He was, inter alia, responsible for regulating, licensing and supervising VFA Agents, VFA Issuers and VFA Service Providers. During his tenure, Christos represented the MFSA at various European fora, including the European Banking Authority’s taskforce on crypto assets.

Alessandro Spellanzon is a FinTech specialist at the BMA, where he licenses and supervises a variety of firms, evaluates business-impacting requests, and ensures compliance with regulatory norms. He is instrumental in driving the strategic development initiatives in the arena of digital payments and investments, crucial for spurring sector growth and efficiency. Prior to the BMA, Alessandro held significant roles at prominent firms such as National Australia Bank, KPMG, Barclays, and Checkout.com, advising on prudential regulatory measures, capital management, and conducting industry analysis and research on banking regulations.

Benjamin Ellul is an Economics and Policy graduate from the University of Malta and currently finalising a Master of Science in Finance and Economics with the University of London. Benjamin is a Senior Analyst within the Office of the Chief Officer Supervision at the Malta Financial Services Authority. He assists the Chief Officer Supervision in the oversight and coordination of the Supervisory Directorate, mainly by ensuring the effective management of information regarding supervisory interactions. He also works in close collaboration with the Supervisory Directorate to deliver some of the MFSA’s milestone projects and yearly publications. In addition, Benjamin also holds the role of secretary in the Risk-Based Supervision Forum and is a member of the internal Sustainable Finance Working Group.

Filippo Annunziata is Associate Professor of Financial Markets Law and Institutions at Bocconi University (Milan). He is a Fellow Academic Board Member at the European Banking Institute (Frankfurt), Professor of International Financial Regulation at Cà Foscari University, Venice, and Guest Professor at KU Leuven.

With more than 20 years of experience in Financial Markets, Regulation and Innovation, Nicolas is currently Director at IBM Promontory. His teams accompany large financial institutions in solving complex strategic regulatory challenges: assessing impact and defining strategies to implement new regulations, balancing innovation and risks, enhancing programs for regulatory, compliance and conduct risk, and fighting financial crime and fraud. Before joining IBM Promontory, Nicolas spent 11 years as Chief Operations Officer (COO) of the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA). He was part of the founding executive team of ESMA – in charge of Information Technology, Human Resources, Finance and Procurement, and Facility Management. As part of the Executive Committee of ESMA, he participated in the setup of all regulatory developments led by ESMA (MiFIR, EMIR, AIFMD & SFTR, etc.). In his position, Nicolas led the setup of all operational matters of the new Authority (including Security, Risk and Compliance), and its growth from 30 to 350 staff members. Prior to his experience at ESMA, Nicolas was the IT Director of the Committee of European Securities Regulators (CESR), where he set up the first pan-European IT system exchanging all transactions executed in Europe across its 28 financial regulators.

Thanh Tran Tien is currently a Product Manager at Banque de France. He previously worked as a consultant at IBM Promontory, contributing to regulatory assessments and AI compliance analyses for major European banks. Thanh holds a Master’s in Consulting and Management from CELSA – Sorbonne University, and has legal training from Paris 2 Panthéon-Assas. His expertise bridges regulatory strategy, financial law, and digital transformation in the banking sector.

Sipke Hiemstra, after having been responsible for the regulatory compliance of the financing company of IBM in France, is now a consultant in banking regulations at IBM Promontory. He started his career in IT analytics (programming and data) and then continued in internal audit and internal controls.

Pierre-Henri Conac is Professor of Financial Markets Law at the University of Luxembourg. He is also Max Planck Fellow at the MPI Hamburg. He is the author of The regulation of securities markets by the French Commission des opérations de bourse (COB) and the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). He has written numerous articles on corporate and securities law and co-edited several books. He has been involved in policy making in financial law, banking law and company law at EU and national level. He participates regularly at conferences and seminars on such topics in Europe and internationally. He is also the chair of the European Model Company Act (EMCA) Group. He is managing editor of the Revue des Sociétés (Dalloz) and co-chief managing editor of the European Company and Financial Law Review (De Gruyter).

Richard Metcalfe is Head of Regulatory Affairs at the World Federation of Exchanges (WFE). As Head of Regulatory Affairs for the WFE – the global trade association for CCPs and stock and derivatives exchanges – Mr Metcalfe drives policy and regulatory engagement on a range of topics, emphasising the unique role that ‘market infrastructure’ plays in furthering social welfare, by creating positive externalities and supporting stability while maintaining an impartial role relative to market participants. He has previously worked in policy roles at ISDA and the Investment Association and with BNY Mellon, having graduated from Oxford University (MA in languages). He also spent some years as a journalist, covering the emergence of derivatives and the development of financial risk management.

Nathalie Piscione is a Senior Legal Officer at the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) since 2011. She currently works on Supervisory Convergence matters in the Conduct, Supervision and Convergence department. She focuses on topics such as Supervisory Independence, Outsourcing, and Peer Reviews. Nathalie previously held senior positions as Legal Counsel, Cooperation Officer, and Policy Officer at ESMA. Prior to this, Nathalie was Head of Legal in international financial institutions and firms.

Emanuel Said is an Associate Professor and Dean of the Faculty of Economics, Management and Accountancy of the University of Malta. He holds a PhD from Cranfield University and an MBA from Henley Business School. Prior to his academic career, Emanuel was a consultant in marketing and marketing research to several public and private organizations in a diversity of industries, ranging from pharmaceuticals to financial services. Emanuel’s research focuses on consumer behaviour (with specific areas like gamification and service automation) as well as the generation and use of customer insight by organizations to inform marketing decisions. He has published in several high impact journals locally and overseas.