Financial Services Practice
In the wake of the April 2009 London G20 and the de Larosière report, the EU has decided to revisit a large part of its financial services regulatory framework. Some pieces of legislation will be proposed before the end of the current Commission, but more will come as soon as the new one takes over.
The agenda has never been that packed and ambitious, not even at the time of the first Financial Services Action Plan which immediately followed the introduction of the euro in 1999.
As it is always the case in fast moving times, the upcoming legislation may create an opportunity for forward thinking financial institutions, but it will almost only create challenges for the others. Against this background, Avisa created in the spring 2009 a practice fully dedicated to financial services, which is one the most, if not the most experienced in Brussels on macro-financial and regulatory issues.
In addition, thanks to its long established competition practice, Avisa can assist on all issues relating to State aids to banks, and antitrust cases which may derive from these aids, which we think will feature prominently on the next Commission’s agenda.
As for now our financial services practice comprises five consultants, with at least one prominent name due to join us in September:
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Jacques Lafitte |
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Founder of Avisa Partners, Jacques has more than two decades of government and private sector expertise. Before coming to Brussels, he served in both the French and German defense ministries and in the French Treasury. From 1995 to 1999, he was the member of cabinet in charge of the euro in the cabinet of the Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner before creating a first consultancy, JHL Conseil. He then served as Microsoft’s European Director of Corporate Affairs between 2000 and 2002. He lectures or comments EU affairs at several universities and for several media. |
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Antonio Hernandez Laviades |
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Prior to joining Avisa, Antonio was Director of European Affairs at NYSE Euronext, advocating the interest of the Group vis-à-vis EU Institutions, Permanent representations and Missions, associations and other European actors. He also provided strategic advice to its senior management. He was an active member of Federation of European Securities Exchanges (FESE) where he was part of the Management Committee and chaired the Global Cross-Sectoral Issues task force. Before NYSE Euronext, Antonio worked 6 years in the City in various operational positions. |
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Marianne Kager |
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Marianne worked as a political advisor to Minister of State Mr. Lacina in the Federal Chancellery, in the Ministry of Trade and as a Chief of Cabinet in the Ministry of Agriculture. She then moved to Bank Austria, the largest commercial bank in Austria, where she worked nearly 20 years as chief economist. Her work on the transition of the CEE countries is widely recognized. She also supervised the bank’s EU affairs department and, after a series of mergers, ended up doing the same job for Unicredito. She left the bank in 2008. She was called upon by the European Parliament to be an expert for the ECON Committee a few years ago and is still to this day a member of an advisory Committee to Commissioner Potočnik and of various financial industries associations. |
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Graham Bishop |
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Graham is a leading technical analyst of economic and structural developments in the financial markets of Europe. That standing has been built up over 37 years in the City of London. He authored Salomon Brothers/Citigroup research on the issues surrounding monetary union after it became a serious possibility in 1988. As Adviser on European Financial Affairs at Citigroup in London, he reported to the Co-Chief Executives in Europe. Over the years Graham served as a member of the prestigious EU Giovannini group, advised the European Parliament on the Lamfalussy process, as well as the House of Lords and UK Treasury Committee. He also chaired the LIBA euro committee. |
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Silvia Merino Rueda |
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Silvia has a business administration background with finance specialty. Just before joining Avisa she worked at the European Insurance Association dealing with financial services such as Solvency II, Block Exemption Regulation, the Insurance Guarantee Scheme and Occupational Retirement provision. This followed a stage in 2008 at the Financing standardization Unit of DG ENTR of the European Commission.
A graduate of the College of Europe in |
