ECIJA signs the Deputy Director of the Portuguese CMVM to lead its Fintech and Financial Regulation practice area.

María Ruiz de Velasco, who has developed her professional career in Spain, the United Kingdom and Portugal, will lead the Fintech practice of ECIJA from its headquarters in Madrid and Lisbon.

ECIJA has announced the incorporation of Spanish lawyer María Ruiz de Velasco, Deputy Director of the Portuguese CMVM and one of the foremost experts in financial and regulatory law in Iberia, in its commitment to lead the legal advice of sectors linked to technology.

Ruiz de Velasco has over 15 years of experience in advising on financial and regulatory law: In addition to her experience at CMVM, María has been Vice President of Morgan Stanley in the United Kingdom and Deputy Director of the Compliance Department at Banco Espírito Santo, among others.

Law degree from the University of Santiago de Compostela and specialized in Regulatory Policy and Fintech from the University of Oxford, María is also an English lawyer, Solicitor of England & Wales, qualified by the Supreme Court of England and Wales. She will practice area focused on financial regulation and “Fintech”, and will work closely with the team that leads the Blockchain area of the Firm, created last year.

In the words of Alejandro Touriño, Managing Partner of ECIJA “the financial sector (banking, insurance and securities) is increasingly focused on technology with the aim of adapting to the market and offering innovative products and services. The sector has changed as we knew it a decade ago, and the same thing happens with regulation, accompanying the Fintech revolution that we are living. Investments in Fintech have multiplied in recent years and their presence in Europe is increasingly relevant. Regulatory, financial and technology law are essential in the day to day of this type of companies, and being able to count on with professionals with solid regulatory training, capable of offering that vision of integral advice, entails a great advantage for the Firm “.

According to María Ruiz de Velasco, “My experience working in the regulatory body of the Portuguese market, has allowed me to know first-hand the challenges that FinTech generates from the regulatory, supervisory and enforcement point of view. It is a privilege to be able to coordinate the area of “Financial Regulation and FinTech” at the Iberian level in a leading firm in New Technologies such as ECIJA. At this moment there are major challenges at the national and cross-border levels, both for regulators and financial operators, due to the lack of legal security that surrounds many of these matters. For this reason, we believe that specialization and international experience in this field will be key elements for Firms offering legal advice in this field “.