The Institute of Banking and Finance Law (the Institute) is a centre of excellence in research and teaching of banking and finance law and is part of the Centre for Commercial Law Studies (CCLS) in the School of Law at Queen Mary University of London. The Institute is a leading centre on banking and finance law in the world. Its members offer a wide range of courses in banking and finance law, organise and contribute to conferences across the globe, and influence national, European and international regulatory developments.
The members of the Institute of Banking and Finance Law include four leading professors in this area: Professor Rosa M. Lastra (chair), Professor Rodrigo Olivares-Caminal, Professor George Walker, and Professor Sir William Blair; one senior lecturer, Dr Costanza Russo; and two lecturers Dr Katrien Morbee and Dr Daniele D’Alvia. In addition, Dr Andromachi Georgosouli contributes to the teaching in this area. Professor Walker is the director of the MSc Law and Finance and the LLM in Law and Economics programmes.
The Institute attracts distinguished guest speakers and distinguished visiting professors, ranging from General Counsel of the European Central Bank, Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Bank of England, Hong Kong Monetary Authority, Bank for International Settlements and the International Monetary Fund; as well as QCs, judges senior regulators and practitioners from leading law firms in the City (Clifford Chance, Freshfields, Allen & Overy, Cleary Gottlieb, Millbank and others), investment banks, Lloyds and insurance firms.
Specifically, the Institute runs a series of distinguished guest speakers in international finance with world leading policy makers and practitioners and a series of ‘CCLS – Open Lectures’.
The combined expertise of the academic staff provides the students with a wide range of skills to go into practice, the judiciary, academia, regulatory agencies, the financial world or international organisations.
Professor Rosa M. Lastra teaches in the areas of banking and central banking law, financial regulation and international economic law; Professor Olivares-Caminal teaches in the areas of insolvency, corporate finance law, mergers and acquisitions, and sovereign debt; Professor George Walker teaches in the areas of banking, FinTech and international finance; Professor Sir William Blair teaches in the area of dispute resolution, finance and ethics; Professor Ioannis Kokkoris teaches in the areas of corporate finance law, and competition law; Dr Andromachi Georgosouli teaches in areas of securities regulation, insurance law, and principles of regulation; Dr Costanza Russo teaches in areas of corporate governance and ethics in finance; Dr Daniele D’Alvia teaches in the areas of corporate finance law, mergers and acquisitions, investment banking, international finance and international financial regulation; Dr Katrien Morbee teaches in the areas of corporate finance law, mergers and acquisitions and art and money, sustainability and green finance.
For more details on each programme, together with the specific modules on offer, visit the courses section.
The Institute’s research covers the most topical subjects in the field of banking and finance and include: central banking, international banking and finance, global financial markets, international monetary law, derivatives, crypto assets regulation and DeFi structures, CBDCs, corporate finance law, M&As, SPACs and alternative acquisition models, private equity and venture capital, investment banking law, EU financial law, resolution and insolvency of financial institutions and financial crisis management, banking and financial regulation, Islamic finance, WTO law, IMF law, Preferential Trade Agreements, international investment law, sovereign debt management and restructuring, insurance law, ethics in business and finance, corporate social responsibility, sustainability, and green finance. A more detailed description of the Institute’s current research project is available on the research section.
The Institute’s research covers the most topical subjects in the field of banking and finance law, and the main core areas include:
Within those macro-areas of teaching and research, the members are specifically lecturing and researching, inter alia, on crypto assets regulation and DeFI structures, CBDCs, SPACs and alternative acquisition models, private equity and venture capital, investment banking law, EU financial law, resolution and insolvency of financial institutions and financial crisis management, banking and financial regulation, Islamic Finance, WTO law, IMF law, Preferential Agreements, international investment law, sovereign debt management and restructuring, and corporate social responsibility. Recent selected publications by members of the Institute include:
The Institute has developed close links with other Universities around the World. In the US, regular contacts with Harvard, Columbia, Georgetown, SMU in Texas, Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, and NYU enrich our teaching and research capabilities. The MoU signed with Georgetown has offered a platform for further collaboration in the fields of sovereign debt and international economic and financial law. Under the 1+1 Masters Programme agreement signed between Queen Mary's Centre for Commercial Law Studies and Georgetown University, suitably qualified students may apply to study an LLM (or Master Programme) with Georgetown University and an LLM with Queen Mary University of London. Students may choose to study the first year at Georgetown University and the second year at Queen Mary University of London or vice versa, i.e. the first year at Queen Mary University of London and the second year at Georgetown University. Moreover, Professor Rosa M. Lastra has developed a partnership with Yale Law School, Georgetown Law Institute of International Economic Law, Tulane Law, Cornell Law, and the Bank of England to organise an annual conference on Law and Macroeconomics. Dr Costanza Russo has developed a partnership with the Seven Pillars Institute for Global Finance and Ethics based in Kansas, and is working on a research project with Sir William Blair and others on how to create an ethical culture in the banking sector.
In Europe, the Institute has close links with several universities; the links with the University of Bergen as well as other Scandinavian Universities has resulted in our successful Diploma and Certificate in International Financial Law. Links with Universities in Hong-Kong, Shanghai and Singapore are also a result of the individual links forged by our members. Moreover, strong links have been developed with Latin American Universities, including Universidad de Montevideo in Uruguay and Universidad de Externado in Colombia. In Africa, the Institute has developed a MoU with Strathmore University in Kenya.
The Institute’s members are actively involved with organising and contributing to conference across the globe. The institute hosts the London Financial Regulation Seminar, an inter-disciplinary and inter-collegiate group of experts led by CCLS and our Institute of Banking and Finance under the leadership of Professor Rosa M. Lastra and Dr Daniele D’Alvia, which holds seminars, and more occasional conferences, on topics relating to regulation of financial markets.
In 2022 and 2023, Professor Lastra has been working in close collaboration with the IMF’s Legal Department on the intersection between climate change policies, central banking, and banking law. The collaboration builds on a long-lasting intellectual partnership covering several legislative developments, initiatives, and policy proposals (including on legal issues related to Brexit, bank insolvency and resolution, public debt, central banking, and bank regulation in which her research has been impactful).
The Institute members are regularly interviewed or quoted in the media worldwide and are invited to give keynote speeches at the Bank of England, Bank for International Settlements, International Monetary Fund, European Central Bank and others. The recent activities of the Institutes can be followed via the News and Events sections. In 2021, Professor Lastra was Specialist Adviser to the House of Lords in the inquiry conducted by its Economic Affairs Committee on the quantitative easing program of the Bank of England. The report of the House of Lords was published in July 2021 and received extensive media coverage. In 2023, Professor Lastra is acting as Specialist Adviser to the House of Lords Economic Affairs Committee in the inquiry related to ‘Bank of England: How is independence working’, and is a member of the UNIDROIT Working Group on Bank Insolvency. She also promotes the Financial Inclusion Project in the Mile End Area.
The Institute members influence national, European and international financial regulatory developments. For instance, Dr. Costanza Russo was invited by Sir Richard Lambert to contribute to the creation of the new Professional Body for Banking Standards advocated by the UK Parliamentary Commission on Banking Standards. Rodrigo Olivares-Caminal is an Oriental Scholar (Shanghai Ministry of Education, China), and Senior Insolvency Expert at the World Bank. Moreover, he has been appointed to represent the creditors for Cuba’s sovereign debt and more recently Venezuela and African countries. Besides acting as Specialist Adviser to the House of Lords (Economic Affairs Committee) Professor Lastra is a member of the Banking Union (Resolution) Expert Panel of the European Parliament since 2016 and a Member of the Monetary Expert Panel of the European Parliament in preparation for the Monetary Dialogue with the European Central Bank since 2015; she regularly rewrites studies and briefing papers (often in collaboration with other members of the Institute) at the request of the Economic Affairs Committee (ECON) of the European Parliament. Both Professors Rodrigo Olivares-Caminal and Rosa M. Lastra serve in the Financial Market Law Committee of the Bank of England. Professor Lastra and Professor Sir William Blair, moreover, are members of the Monetary Committee of the International Law Association (with Professor Lastra serving as Vice-chair of MOCOMILA since 2021-2022). Professor Walker has been a Visiting Scholar at the Bank of England and working on digital currencies, central bank digital currencies (CBDC) and FinTech. Dr. Daniele D’Alvia is an internationally recognised expert on Special Purpose Acquisition Companies, Corporate Finance Law, and Investment Banking Law. He is a pioneer in SPAC studies, author of the first book on SPACs (Routledge in 2021), and award-winner of the Colin B. Picker Prize by the American Society of Comparative Law. Dr Katrien Morbee is an expert in corporate finance and sustainability and is at the forefront of the development of the new sustainable finance regulatory agenda in the EU, UK, and worldwide. Dr Andromachi Georgosouli is a leading expert on insurance law, transnational governance, and digitalisation with a focus on meta-regulation in the field of financial services. She has been involved in the preparation of independent reports and studies for the European Parliament, the Advisory Pool of Experts of the Bar Standards Board, and the European Central Bank.
The Institute’s members have ongoing links with other Universities in the UK. For example, Professor Lastra has acted as external examiner of the Oxford MSc in Law and Finance (MLF) and Professor Walker was also the Robert S Campbell Fellow at Magdalen College, University of Oxford. Dr Daniele D’Alvia has been a visiting scholar at the Commercial Law Centre (Harris Manchester College – University of Oxford), and he is a Research Associate Fellow at the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies in London.
