Dr Giovanni Bandi
Executive Director
Dr Bandi is the Executive Director of the Regulatory Genome Project at Cambridge Judge Business School, University of Cambridge. He is an expert in financial regulation and regulation technologies. In his current role he is involved in numerous projects to introduce AI processes, machine-readable regulations and regtech applications to the global Regulators community. He also conducts research on technology applications for regulatory matters and collaborates with the IMF and the World Bank as expert in their missions for securities regulations and fintech/suptech.
Before joining Cambridge University, Dr Bandi worked as Director of Supervision at the QFCRA in Qatar and he has been an IOSCO Investment Management Committee member for several years, chairing various working committees on fund leverage and digital assets investments.
His regulator experience started at the FSA where he was a Technical Specialist for the Investment Management Supervision Department. He previously worked in Industry and has been the head of wealth management analytics at MSCI RiskMetrics. Dr Bandi also taught economics and finance for almost decade at Northwestern University in its Qatar campus.
Dr Bandi holds a PhD in Financial Regulation from Durham University, an LL.M in EU Business Law from pan-European universities (PALLAS group) and an MSc/BSc in Finance from Bocconi University.
Dr Yassar Nasser
Head of Global Relations
Dr Nasser is the Head of Global Relations at the RGP. Yassar is an international Executive and Academic with a solid track record in established and emerging markets. His international career involved senior and board positions at major universal banks, commercial enterprises, and renowned universities globally. Yassar combined his professional career with Academia, holding a Doctorate in Monetary Economics and an MBA from the University of Cambridge. He teaches on the Master of Finance and EMBA Programmes at the Cambridge Judge Business School. Yassar Joined the Competitiveness Institute at Harvard in 2017 with a focus on strategic competitiveness for firms and nations. Yassar’s research interests and publications are on the areas of Strategy of Competitiveness, Clusters, Monetary and Financial Economics, and Strategic Finance.
The RGP Technology Group, Chaired by Ms Begum will help the RGP team by:
- providing insights in Regulatory Technology applications and methods to use CRG in a data-driven regulatory framework
- providing input, ideas and introductions on key strategic initiatives to foster the adoption of the CRG as a comparative standard for ML
- acting as an ambassador for the RGP, providing insights on opportunities for collaboration with various institutions in an Academic context
- serving as a sounding advisor to the RGP Leadership and to CJBS.
Sholthana Begum (Chair)
Head of Data and Strategy, Financial Conduct Authority, (FCA), UK
Sholthana has held various roles in front line supervision, central banking and finance, bringing many years of valuable experience to the FCA in its mission to become a digital and intelligence led regulator.
Sholthana is recognised as a thought leader and considered a pioneer of RegTech and Data. This has been recognised by various institutions, and as result her counsel and advice is often sought after by other Central Banks, regulators and private bodies across the globe. Examples of this include being invited to high profile summits such as the G20.
The influence of Sholthana is substantial, she was named in the 2021 DataIQ power list of the most influential people in Data.
Dr Paolo Cadoni
Paolo joined the Bank of England (formerly FSA) in 2004 where he has held a succession of posts both in banking and insurance. He is currently the Head of the Insurance Policy Division in the Prudential Policy Directorate leading on PRA/Bank of England’s input into the International Association of Insurance Supervisors’ (IAIS) Policy Development Committee (PDC) and Macroprudential Committee (MPC). In the past, he also led the Bank of England’s input into the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority’s (EIOPA) Committees.
Since January 2018 Paolo is the Vice-Chair of the IAIS PDC and since March 2013 he is the Chair of the IAIS Capital Solvency and Field Testing Working Group in charge of developing and field testing the Basic Capital Requirement (BCR), Higher Loss Absorbency (HLA) and Insurance Capital Standard (ICS). In the past, Paolo also chaired the EIOPA Internal Models Committee.
Until March 2009 he was also responsible for the FSA’s policy development and implementation of the internal model method (IMM) for counterparty credit risk for banks and investment firms. He also represented the FSA in the Overall Capital and Quantitative Impact Study Working Group of the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision and led the FSA’s work on QIS5.
Prior to becoming a regulator Paolo worked as a financial modeller in the oil and power sector.
He holds a PhD in Finance from the ICMA Centre and an MSc in Econometrics from Southampton University.
Melvin Lopez-Corleone
Melvin works in the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), where he brings valuable experience in finance, technology and policy to support the FCA in its mission to become a digital and intelligence led regulator. Within Data, Melvin leads on external engagement, and actively collaborates with Regulators at a global level, and works with leading technology companies, universities and private/public sector organisations.
In 2021, Melvin was seconded to the Bank of England’s G7 Hub to support the United Kingdom’s G7 presidency. Melvin has authored several publications in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Fintech, and was recently published by Forbes in January 2023.
Heidi Richards
Heid is a former senior financial services regulator, having led and implemented major pillars of international banking policy and financial sector reforms in Australia and the United States. At the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority she headed the policy division, and previously she was an officer at the Federal Reserve Board. She now advises regtech and fintech firms and conducts research into regulatory innovation. She has a Master’s degree in Public Administration and an undergraduate degree in Economics, both from Harvard University.
Christopher Wilson
Chris Wilson is a senior risk consultant specialising in prudential regulation and supervision. With over 25 years of experience in global financial services, he provides expert advice on topics ranging from prudential compliance to fintech and cybersecurity. He consults for a mix of public and private sector clients such as the International Monetary Fund and World Bank, while private sector clients include banks and fintech startups.
From 2012 to 2021, Chris was a Senior Financial Sector Expert with the IMF involved in all aspects of the Fund’s work on regulation and supervision spanning surveillance, capacity development and analytical research. His work on Basel III implementation culminated in a publication of a Working Paper addressing proportionality. During his time at the Fund, he was responsible for conducting country assessments of compliance with the Basel Core Principles. From 2017-2021, he supported the IMF’s work on operational risks and was involved in all aspects of the Fund’s work on cyber risk and financial stability. He co-authored publications on this topic in addition to publications on cyber risk supervision. In the area of fintech, Chris contributed to the development of the IMF’s Bali Fintech Agenda. Other aspects of his work on fintech included policy guidance on regulatory sandboxes, cloud computing and institutional frameworks. He represented the IMF on several international working groups eg, the Financial Stability Board’s WG on bigtech and the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision’s WG on operational resilience.
Prior to the IMF, Chris was a Senior Manager at the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority and a supervisor at the UK’s Financial Services Authority. He holds a master’s degree of Politics and Public Policy, and an undergraduate degree in Economics, both from Macquarie University, as well as a Graduate Diploma in Applied Finance.
Peter Clifford
Peter Clifford is a thought leader, and catalyst in market innovation working at the nexus of digital asset technology, financial market regulation, risk management, and market infrastructure design.
As the Director of Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) and Payments at Digital Asset Management, he pioneered the use case of digital currency with Central Banks including the Banque de France, Banco Central do Brasil, the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) and the Hong Kong Monetary Authority.
A former Head of Policy Development at the Federal Reserve Board, he delivered policy recommendations to the Chairman and Governors, served on the US Central Bank’s Risk Council, and led a team of subject matter experts in assessing new and existing regulation in all risk stripes, and the development of international standards in regulation for example BIS working groups.
While based in Paris, Peter was the Chief Operating Officer for the World Federation of Exchanges, the trade association and standard setter for stock exchanges, commodity, and derivative markets and clearing and settlement infrastructure. He assisted the development of exchanges around the world and led and conducted inspections of exchanges around the world.
He pioneered the development of ESG standards for investors and listed companies, co-founded the French Association of Technical Analysts, was a consultant to the World Bank on funding mechanisms for small and medium sized companies and an advisor to fintech start-ups on go-to-market strategies for tokenisation and distributed ledger technology.
Sofia Pisanello
Sofia is a senior financial services regulator, having held various positions at the Bank of England ranging from negotiating and advising on financial regulation policies to supervising the major UK Banks. She has also led major internal transformational projects and strategic business planning.
During her career, Sofia has held various representational roles at international organisations such as the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision, the Financial Stability Board, and the European Banking Authority.
Sofia has also experience in advising Boards of major UK financial companies on strategies and on business modelling while working at KPMG in various jurisdictions.
Sofia currently advices on UK financial regulation policy publications and the Rulebook at the BOE.
Sofia has a master’s degree in European Economic Studies from the College of Europe. Sofia during her free time enjoys water sports and spending time with her three children.
Maria Ruiz de Velasco
María Ruiz de Velasco is Head of Regulatory Liaison and Content Rights at RegGenome. She is a dual-qualified lawyer (Spain and UK) with over 18 years’ experience in capital markets regulation, payments regulation, compliance, fintech and the functioning of EU institutions and other international bodies.
Her previous roles include being Deputy Director in the Regulatory Policy and International Affairs Department at the Portuguese Securities Commission (CMVM). During this time, she was a member of the Investor Protection and Intermediaries Standing Committee (IPISC) and of the Financial Innovation Standing Committee (FISC) at the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA). She also worked as an advisor and a Compliance Officer at different financial institutions in the UK (Morgan Stanley, Alliance Bernstein and LaSalle Investment Management), Portugal (Abanca, SIBS, Banco Espírito Santo) and Spain (ECIJA, Fintonic).
Maria is a Chartered Fellow of the Chartered Institute for Securities and Investment (UK) and, more recently, collaborated with ISCTE Executive Education and Centro de Estudios Garrigues, lecturing on the subject of Financial Regulation