ECB/ESCB Legal Conference 2026 – Speakers 

Programme of the ECB/ESCB Legal Conference 2026

He is also a Fellow Academic Board Member of the European Banking Institute (EBI) and coordinator of the EU Banking Law module within the EBI’s LL.M. programme in Banking and Finance Law. Since 2024, he has served as Alternate Member of the Joint Board of Appeal of the European Supervisory Authorities (EBA, ESMA and EIOPA).

His academic and professional activity focuses on European financial regulation, banking law, capital markets law, investment funds, investment services, market infrastructures and the institutional framework of the Banking Union. Over the course of his career, he has explored several areas of financial supervision, market abuse regulation, investment funds, corporate governance, digital finance, crypto-assets and sustainable finance, combining scholarly research with practical experience. His work is characterized by a distinctly European and international outlook.

Alongside his work in financial law, he is recognised for his interdisciplinary research at the intersection of law, music and the performing arts.

A native Italian speaker, he is fluent in English and French, possesses advanced proficiency in Spanish and German, and has working knowledge of Arabic and basic knowledge of Russian.

His research focuses on financial regulation, corporate governance, anti-money laundering and sustainable finance law in the EU. Nikolai‘s work has been published in leading international law journals, including the European Law Review, the European Business Organization Law Review, the European Review of Contract Law, and the Journal of Consumer Policy. He won numerous research grants, including the one for his research group in the interdisciplinary Leibniz Competition. He served as an independent legal expert for the European Parliament‘s ECON Committee in the legislative process on the European Green Bond Regulation.

Before joining SAFE, Nikolai held a postdoctoral Max Weber Fellowship at the European University Institute in Florence and earned his Ph.D. in law from Humboldt University Berlin. He is a fully qualified German lawyer and holds an LL.M. from King’s College London and a Laurea Magistrale in Giurisprudenza from the Sapienza University of Rome. His research has attracted media coverage, including by Bloomberg, Börsenzeitung, Süddeutsche Zeitung, NDR, WDR, tagesschau.de, and the Financial Times.

He holds a Ph.D. from the European University Institute (Florence), an LL.M. from the College of Europe (Bruges), and a Spanish law degree. He teaches EU law at Université Libre de Bruxelles and for many years he was a visiting professor at Sciences Po in Paris.

From 2000 to 2004 he was a référendaire at the European Court of Justice, in the chambers of President Rodríguez Iglesias and with Advocate General Poiares Maduro. He is the author of numerous publications on Union law, including his book What’s left of the law of integration? Decay and resistance in European Union law (Oxford University Press, 2018).

He studied law at the Universities of Constance and Aix-en-Provence and holds a PhD from Humboldt-University Berlin where he explored the effects of public international law treaties on the institutions of the European Union. His research focuses on constitutional and institutional law of the EU, Economic and Monetary Union and the law of financial services.

Born in 1965 in Florence (Italy), Andrea Biondi studied at the Università degli Studi di Firenze (University of Florence, Italy), where he obtained a master’s degree in law in 1990, followed by a doctorate in comparative law in 1996.

He began his academic career at University College London (United Kingdom) in 1993, then moved to the University of Birmingham (United Kingdom) between 1994 and 1997. In 1997, he joined King’s College London (United Kingdom), where he became professor of European Union law in 2006, a post he has held ever since. From 2001 to 2024, he was also Director of the Centre for European Law at King’s College London.

Throughout his career, Mr Biondi has regularly taught as a guest lecturer at renowned universities, including the Libera Università Internazionale degli Studi Sociali Guido Carli ‘LUISS’ (Free International University of Social Studies Guido Carli, Italy), the Università Bocconi (Bocconi University, Italy), Università degli Studi di Roma ‘La Sapienza’ (University of Rome ‘La Sapienza’, Italy), Freie Universität Berlin (Free University of Berlin, Germany), université Paris II Panthéon-Assas (University of Paris II Panthéon-Assas, France), Georgetown University (United States) and the College of Europe campus in Natolin (Poland).

In 2021, he was appointed Vice-Chair of the Board of Appeal of the European Union Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators (ACER). Mr Biondi was admitted to the Italian Bar in 2001 and worked for two law firms in London as an expert adviser between 2003 and 2024. He is the author of numerous books and publications, in particular on EU law.

He is member of legal, cultural, artistic, social, sporting or charitable foundations, organisations or establishments as well as of the editorial boards of various academic journals. In 2025 he has been awarded the honorary title of Cavaliere dell’Ordine della Stella of the Italian Republic in recognition of his efforts to promote Italy’s national prestige abroad and his academic career.

At Tilburg University, he is affiliated with the Tilburg Institute for Law, Technology and Society, the Tilburg Law and Economics Center and is a member of the programme committee for the undergraduate Data Science programme jointly offered by Tilburg University and Eindhoven University of Technology.

He is the author of EU Payments Law and Regulation (with E. van Praag, OUP, forthcoming) and numerous articles in journals including the Journal of Financial Regulation, International Journal of Law and Information Technology, Law and Geoeconomics, Data in Brief, among other. He has held visiting positions at FGV Sao Paulo, Hong Kong University, Nova University of Lisbon and Singapore Management University. Konrad obtained a J.S.D. from Columbia Law School, a Ph.D. in Law from the European University Institute, and an LLM from Duke Law School. Prior to academia, he was a finance lawyer at Ropes & Gray in London.

Before becoming a member of the Court, she pursued an academic career as professor of EU law at the University of Zagreb, Faculty of Law. She was Head of the EU Law department as well as of the postgraduate programmes in European law. She was also an academic coordinator of a Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence “EU Global Leadership in the Rule of Law”. Ms Ćapeta has participated in numerous international research projects and published extensively on different topics of EU law.

She is member of the teaching staff of the Sapienza PhD programme in Public, Comparative and International Law and coordinator of the Administrative Law PhD programme.

She is author of more than 100 publications. Her research interests are focused on Italian, European and comparative administrative law, as well as on regulation and competition law, public contracts, judicial and non-judicial remedies.

Ms Chirulli is member of the Italian Association of Administrative Law Professors (AIPDA), founding member of the Italian Association of Environmental Law (AIDAmbiente), and member of the executive board of the Italian Association of Planning Law (AIDU). She is also member of the scientific board of the Italian Journal of European public Law (Rivista italiana di Diritto pubblico comunitario), Rivista della Regolazione dei Mercati, Rivista giuridica dell’Edilizia and Rivista giuridica di urbanistica, and member of the board of referees of many A ANVUR journals.

She is a practising lawyer since 1992 with a specialization in administrative law and an alternate member of the Board of Statutory Auditors of the Banca d'Italia.

He is responsible for the Directorate General International and European Relations, the Directorate General Market Infrastructure and Payments and the Directorate Banknotes. He also chairs the Eurosystem High-Level Task Force on Digital Euro, the Euro Retail Payments Board and the Euro Cyber Resilience Board for pan-European Financial Infrastructures.

Before joining the ECB, Mr Cipollone was Deputy Governor of the Banca d’Italia and a member of the Board of the Italian Institute for the Supervision of Insurance. He also served as a member of the Coordination Group for the Cross-border payments programme at the Bank for International Settlements. He previously served as an Executive Director on the Board of the World Bank Group.

Mr Cipollone is the author of several books. His papers have been published in international journals such as the American Economic Review, the Journal of the European Economic Association and the Journal of Policy Modeling. 

A leading expert on banking, central banking, and financial regulation, he is the author of The Power and Independence of the Federal Reserve, Private Finance, Public Power: A History of Bank Supervision in America and dozens of academic articles on these subjects. He also writes the popular Substack, PCB Central, and is frequently quoted in major news outlets throughout the world. He holds degrees from Harvard, Stanford Law, and a Ph.D. in history from Princeton.

She serves as an expert in the Monetary Expert Panel of the ECON Committee of the European Parliament and contributes to other financial markets advisory bodies. Before joining private practice, she pursued academic research at the Max Planck Institute for Tax Law and Public Finance in Munich and worked with former Justice of the German Federal Constitutional Court Prof. Dr. Peter M. Huber at Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich.

Her research centres on European monetary law and financial regulation, with a particular focus on their interface with macro- and microeconomics, as reflected in her PhD, “Controlled Independence: Fundamentals and Limits of European Monetary Policy”. She was awarded the ECB Legal Research Programme Grant in 2022 and 2025.

From 2020 to 2025 he co-chaired the Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Risks of the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision.

Mr Elderson previously served as Executive Director of De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB). At DNB he held several senior positions before joining its Governing Board in 2011.

Before joining DNB in 1999, Mr Elderson worked as a lawyer specialising in EU competition law.

Throughout his career, Frank Elderson has stressed the importance of climate and environment related considerations for the financial sector and for supervisors and central banks.

He founded and chaired the Dutch Platform for Sustainable Finance from 2016 to 2020 and from 2018 to 2022 he served as the first Chair of the Network of Central Banks and Supervisors for Greening the Financial System (NGFS), a network he helped creating and expanding.

Mr Elderson graduated in Dutch law at the University of Amsterdam in 1994 and obtained an LL.M. Degree at Columbia Law School, New York, in 1995. He also studied various courses at the University of Zaragoza, Spain.

Before joining the University of St. Gallen in 2024, she held the chair for European and Comparative Financial Law at Radboud University Nijmegen in the Netherlands. She also sits on the Academic Board of the European Banking Institute (EBI), is a member of the Committee on International Monetary Law of the International Law Association (MOCOMILA) and advises the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs (ECON) of the European Parliament as a member of the Monetary Policy Expert Panel.

Seraina Grünewald’s expertise includes banking supervision and resolution, sustainable finance as well as central banking and monetary law and is frequently commissioned by national, European, and international authorities. At the EUI, she directs executive training courses for resolution experts from relevant authorities, the industry, and legal practice.

Jennifer King qualified as a lawyer in Ireland in 1996 and worked in private practice becoming a partner. In 2016 she joined the Legal Service of the European Commission and then the Legal Service of the EU Agency, the Single Resolution Board in 2018 before joining the Office of the European Ombudsman as a legal expert in 2021.

Between 2011 and 2019 she served as Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund. Prior to that she served as French Minister of Economy and Finance from 2007 to 2011, having been Trade Secretary from 2005 to 2007. A lawyer by background, she practised for 20 years with international law firm Baker McKenzie, of which she became Global Chair in 1999. She was the first woman to hold each of these positions.

In 2019, 2020, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025 and 2026 President Lagarde was ranked the second most influential woman in the world by Forbes. She has also been recognised by TIME as one of the 100 most influential people in the world. She was named Officer in the French Order of the Legion of Honor in April 2012, Commander in the National Order of Merit in May 2021 and Grand Officer in the French Order of the Legion of Honor in July 2026.

He holds degrees from the University of Athens (LLB) and Oxford (MJur, DPhil). He received funding for his studies from the University of Athens, the Academy of Athens, the Oxford Law Faculty, and the Modern Law Review. He teaches and researches EU law and public law. His core expertise is the Economic and Monetary Union.

Mr Markakis has published his research in prestigious edited volumes and peer-reviewed journals, including the Common Market Law Review, the European Law Review, the European Constitutional Law Review, Public Law, and the Journal of International Economic Law. His monograph, entitled Accountability in the Economic and Monetary Union: Foundations, Policy, and Governance, was published by Oxford University Press and won an award by the European Court of Auditors. He has obtained research funding for Jean Monnet Network PROSPER, from the EUR Fellowship, and the European Social Fund. He is regularly invited to present his research at international conferences and to lecture at other universities, including at Oxford. He is Co-Chair of the Benelux Chapter of the International Society of Public Law and Book Reviews Editor for the European Law Review.

Since joining the Commission in 2007, she has held legal and management posts in its Legal Service, Disciplinary and Investigation Office (IDOC), and Directorate-General for Human Resources. Since 2024, she leads the Quality of Legislation unit dealing with financial markets and services, budgetary and taxation matters, internal market, defence and climate. She has a coordination role in the Commission’s ongoing simplification and competitiveness work.

She has represented the Commission before the Court of Justice of the EU and provided legal advice in three Legal Service teams responsible for the internal market, energy union and environmental law, EU staff law, and quality of legislation. Between 2018 and 2022, she was the Legal/Policy Coordinator and deputised the Director of IDOC, dealing with institutional and disciplinary matters and coordination with the EPPO and OLAF. From 2000 to 2007, she was a legal adviser in EU customs and trade in Toyota Motor Europe, KPMG Tax Advisers and Vermulst, Verhaeghe and Graafsma trade law firm in Brussels.

She holds an LL.M. in EU and International Trade Law from the University of Amsterdam, an M.A. in British and American Philology from the University of Sofia “Kliment Ochridsky’’, and Bulgarian law at the New Bulgarian University.

Dr. Maria Mousmouti is an expert in legislative quality and effectiveness, legislative design and drafting, equality and fundamental rights. She holds a PhD in law and legislative studies (University of London) and her expertise covers the entire law-making cycle, legislative design and drafting, ex-ante and ex-post legislative scrutiny, gender-sensitive scrutiny of legislation.

She collaborates closely with international organisations in her field of expertise and has support governments and parliaments in more than 30 countries in Southeast Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia to improve their legislative processes and legislative design.

Recent publications include a monograph ‘Designing Effective Legislation’ (2019), an edited volume on Gender sensitive lawmaking in theory and practice (2023) and articles or publications on various aspects of effective lawmaking, legislative drafting, legislative scrutiny, post-legislative scrutiny (latest 2025), gender sensitive legislative design (Imagining future directions for gender equality, 2026), gender-sensitive post legislative scrutiny, SDG-informed legislative scrutiny (2025) and gender mainstreaming (Research Handbook on Gender Mainstreaming, Elgar, 2026).

She is also a member of the European Central Bank’s Legal Committee (LEGCO) and previously served for ten years as a member of the Legal Network of the Single Resolution Board.

She holds a double degree in Law and Business Administration from Universidad Pontificia Comillas (Madrid). Before joining the Banco de España, she worked at the Spanish law firm Uría Menéndez, where her practice focused on M&A and banking.

He has published monographs and numerous journal articles, in ICLQ, European Economic Review, ECFR, EBOR, EBLR, ELR, ERPL, Bus. & Fin. L. Rev. or Common Market Law Review on bank supervision and resolution, corporate and securities law, climate change and sustainability, digitalisation, contract law, arbitration or fundamental rights. He has benefitted three times from the ECB Legal Research Program (2015, 2016, 2021).

David is a legal expert for the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and a member of the Banking Union expert Panel for the European Parliament, has been part of the Appeal Panel for the Single Resolution Board (SRB), and is part of the Joint Board of Appeal of the European Supervisory Authorities (ESAs). He is a member ad personam of the European Banking Institute (EBI), leading its working group on Finance, Climate Change and Sustainability, a member of the European Law Institute (ELI), and the International Law association. He lives in Madrid with his wonderful wife and sons.

Since 2020 he is the Editor-in-Chief of EU Law Live.

Her priorities include establishing direct and indirect supervision mechanisms, coordinating the Financial Intelligence Units (FIUs), and setting standards across the EU to ensure efficient action against money laundering and terrorism financing.

Ms Szego began her career at the Banca d'Italia in 1990. Throughout her time there, she consistently advanced through roles of increasing responsibility. Prior to leading AMLA, she was at the helm of the AML Supervision and Regulation (SNA). Established in June 2022, the SNA plays a crucial role in fortifying the Bank’s efforts to combat money laundering and terrorism financing. Ms Szego was instrumental in guiding its inception, overseeing logistics, recruitment, IT development, risk assessment methodologies, and strategic communication across multiple stakeholders.

In her previous role, Ms Szego headed the Regulations and Macroprudential Analysis Directorate within the Directorate General for Financial Supervision and Regulation. There, she directed the rulemaking process concerning financial intermediaries and the financial system. Her tenure involved leading the Bank’s efforts on many key issues, including the post-crisis Basel reforms, the Banking Union, the resolution framework, and AML regulations.

Throughout her career, she participated in high-level European bodies such as the SRB, the EBA BoS, the EBA Resolution Committee, the EBA AML Standing Committee, ECB and ESRB Committees.

Ms Szego's academic foundation in law, coupled with extensive research experience in law and economics, laid the groundwork for her career in financial supervision and regulation. Her commitment to financial integrity continues to drive her AML efforts on a European scale.

She is honoured as a Knight of the Italian Republic.

Sophie began her career at the Banque de France in 1998, following her graduation from Sciences Po (Paris). She subsequently worked at the Committee of European Banking Supervisors in London and held several managerial positions in international affairs, legal, and supervision at the French Prudential Supervisory and Resolution Authority (ACPR), before joining ESMA in 2013.

Her responsibilities at ESMA include providing legal advice on financial regulation, supervisory, and institutional matters; preparing sanction decisions and promoting convergence in enforcement at the national level; Ethics and Data Protection. Since March 2023, Sophie has chaired the ESMA CCP Resolution Committee.

Sophie is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Academy of European Law (ERA).

In this capacity, he is also a member of the Executive Board, the Governing Council, the General Council of the European Central Bank and the General Board of the European Systemic Risk Board.

From 2012 until 2026, Mr Vujčić served as Governor of Hrvatska narodna banka overseeing the country’s accession to the euro area in 2023. He has been Chairman of the Steering Committee of the Vienna Initiative since 2016.

In 2021, he was awarded the Lamfalussy Award for his lifetime achievement with a special emphasis on his key role in Croatia’s accession to the European Union and in the reform of Croatia’s monetary policy instruments.

Boris Vujčić holds a PhD in Economics from the University of Zagreb. As an associate professor at the Faculty of Economics (2003-2026) and as a visiting professor at the Faculty of Mathematics (2004-2026) he maintained a strong connection to his alma mater.

She has extensive managerial experience in the payments industry, amongst others as Global Head of Payments within ING and General Director Products and Innovation within equensWorldline. She has been board member of both European Payment Council and European Automated Clearing House Association. She has driven the roll out and implementation of EMV (Europay, Mastercard, Visa), Instant Payments and PSD2 on a European level in her respective companies. She has a master degree from the Technical University of Eindhoven and from Tilburg University.

She was the first UK Professor in Law and Legislative Drafting. Helen is one of the top experts in legislation, legislative drafting, legislative quality in the UK, the Commonwealth and the EU. She is the author of, among others: the 5th and 6th editions of "Thornton's Legislative Drafting", the leading manual for drafting practitioners; "Drafting Legislation: Art and Technology of Rules and Regulation", the leading academic reference book in legislative drafting, now also translated in Mandarin; and the 2024 Elgar monograph "Legislative Drafting for the EU: transposition techniques as a roadmap for a sustainable EU". She is a consultant to governments, international and regional organisations both as a trainer and a drafter. She is Honorary President of the International Association for Legislation, a Senior Associate Research Fellow at the IALS, a Visiting Professor at QMUL, an Honorary Professor at Xianmen University China, and Member to the Committee for the Scrutiny of the Quality of the Law-making Process of the Presidency of the Government of the Hellenic Republic. Helen recently completed her two-year service as the Key Expert in Better Regulation for Expertise France leading an EU-funded technical assistance to the Presidency of the Government of the Hellenic Republic project for legislative reform, and is now leading a project on legislative scrutiny for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. She is the Co-Editor-in-Chief of the Statute Law Review (Oxford University Press).

Her professional career began at the Legal Service of the Council of Ministers of the European Communities, followed by a tenure as Senior Legal Counsel at the European Monetary Institute. She has held leadership positions in the legal department of the European Central Bank (ECB) and represents the institution before the European Court of Justice since its establishment in 1998. Since 2013 she serves as the General Counsel of the ECB. Additionally, she is a Law Professor at the Goethe University Frankfurt.

As the ECB's chief legal officer with extensive publications on central bank law, she provides authoritative expertise on the legal frameworks and institutional safeguards required for the independent exercise of central banking functions and of prudential supervision within the European Union.