Diego Cefaro

I am a senior associate in our Banking & Finance and Financial Services groups, working across Rome and Milan.

At Bird & Bird I provide a wide range of regulatory advice and support to banks, listed companies and financial intermediaries on issues in banking and financial law.

Before joining in 2013, I worked for two other leading international law firms. I advise our clients on a wide range of regulatory issues relating to payment services, consumer credit, transparency regulations, corporate governance and investment services, as well as on anti-money laundering legislation. I also focus on domestic and cross-border capital market transactions, debt trading, securitisation and factoring, structured and derivative products.

It is worth noting that many financial institutions and other startups have fintech on their minds as this aims to compete with traditional financial methods in the delivery of financial services. We are one of the world's leading technology law firms: this, combined with our detailed understanding of traditional payment services and financial services markets, helps our clients drive leadership and transformation within the new model of global financial services. We therefore offer our clients a range of tech based solutions and tools and have worked closely with our clients to develop innovative ways to meet their needs in a quickly changing legal marketplace.

• Assisting several Italian banks and their IT service providers in assessing potential impacts on their business model arising from the Directive (EU) 2015/2366 on payment services in the internal market (PSD2). We are also helping these entities in assessing the changes in their pre-contractual and contractual documentation due to the new rules coming into force, as well as in their internal policies and regulations.
• Advising a Spanish payment institution in order to create and promote virtual credit cards to consumers in Italy.
• Advising an Italian bank to join a German online marketplace platform for debt sales. By joining the platform the bank would like to sell online some receivables owned by certain Italian SPVs and whose notes, previously issued through several securitisations, are owned by the bank.
• Assisting several Italian banks in structuring the process concerning the offer of term deposits in Germany through an internet platform. Our assistance focused on the banking regulations, including anti-money laundering law, and covered the EU notification procedure. It also involved the reviewing of contracts relating to the products being offered and the negotiation of the service agreement with the counterparties.
• Assisting an Italian bank in relation to the EU proceedings regarding three branch passport notifications and subsequent establishment.
• Advising an Italian bank in implementing the EBA Guidelines on product oversight and governance arrangements for the retail banking products.