Keynote speeches

Mairead McGuinness

European Commissioner for financial services, financial stability and Capital Markets Union

The Commissioner’s vision for the portfolio is focused on ensuring the financial sector’s strength and stability, so that it can deliver for people, society and the environment.

Before joining the Commission in October 2020, Ms McGuinness was First Vice-President of the European Parliament from 2017. She served as an MEP from Ireland for 16 years, and was a Vice-President of the Parliament since 2014.

As Vice-President, she oversaw relations with national Parliaments, led the Parliament’s dialogue with religious and philosophical organisations, and had responsibility for the Parliament’s communication policy.

During her time in the Parliament, Ms McGuinness sat on a range of committees, covering agriculture, environment, public health, budgets, petitions and constitutional affairs. Her legislative work included leading for the EPP Group on the European Climate Law, the revision of medical devices legislation, and CAP reform post-2013. As an Irish MEP representing the border region, she was outspoken on Brexit and the consequences for the EU and Ireland.

In 2006-2007, Ms McGuinness chaired the Parliament’s investigation into the collapse of the Equitable Life assurance company which identified issues around weak financial regulation.

Prior to becoming an MEP, she was an award-winning journalist, broadcaster and commentator.

Petra Hielkema

Chairperson, EIOPA

Petra is the Chairperson of EIOPA and is leading the Authority since September 2021. On 27 May 2021 the Council adopted the decision to appoint her after the confirmation by the European Parliament on 18 May 2021. Petra is also member of the ESRB Steering Committee and member of the IAIS Executive Committee. Besides that she is the Champion of the IAIS Fintech Forum. In 2022 Petra is also chairing the Joint Committee of the three ESA’s (EIOPA, EBA and ESMA).

Prior to this role Petra was Division Director Insurance Supervision at De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB, the Dutch Central Bank). The division is responsible for the supervision of the Dutch insurance sector. Petra joined DNB in February 2007. In 2013 she became Head Insurance Policy. In 2015 she was appointed as Head of the DNB Expert Center for Fit & Proper testing, assessing (supervisory and management) board members in the financial sector. In February 2017 she started as Director of Payments and Market Infrastructures and was responsible for the payments and collateral operations of the central bank, oversight, policy and cyber intelligence. Also the TIBER project (Threat Intelligence Based Ethical Red teaming) was part of her responsibilities. Prior to joining the Dutch Central Bank Petra had an international career in the oil and gas industry.

Prior to being appointed Petra was an Alternate Member of the EIOPA Board of Supervisors. She was also the Chair of the EIOPA Policy Committee. Before that she participated in several EIOPA working groups and fulfilled some international roles including Chair of the FSB fmiCBCM (recovery & resolution for CCPs), member of the BIS Committee for Payments and Market Infrastructures, member of the ECB Market Infrastructures Board, member of the IAIS Technical Committee.

Petra has a European Masters in Law & Economics and a Masters in Russian Studies. She is married and proud mother of three children.

Victoria Saporta

Chair, IAIS Executive Committee and Executive Director, Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) and the Bank of England

Vicky Saporta has been Chair of the Executive Committee of the International Association of Insurance Supervisors since 2014.  She is Executive Director, Prudential Policy, at the Prudential Regulation Authority and the Bank of England. She has been working as a prudential regulator and central banker with a focus on financial stability and international finance, over the past 25 years.  Vicky has published a number of articles on banking and insurance regulation, financial stability and international finance in academic journals and central bank publications.  She holds a PhD in Economics from the University of Cambridge.

Panel 1: Protection gaps: Addressing behavioural change

Darren Duxbury

Chair of Finance, Newcastle University

Professor Duxbury is an international expert in the areas of experimental and behavioural finance, and his work has been published in several world-leading academic journals. His research is concerned with the study of financial behaviour, encompassing individual, household and corporate behaviours over a broad range of financial decisions, including investing, saving, debt, pensions and corporate investment decisions.

As Co-I in the UKRI GCRF Living Deltas Hub, an international, interdisciplinary research project contributing to UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in delta-specific contexts, he applies his behavioural expertise to better understand financial and economic behaviour in the context of deltas, including the use of risk-risk trade-offs for policy purposes.

Michaela Koller

 Director General, Insurance Europe 

Michaela Koller is director general of Insurance Europe, the European insurance and reinsurance federation. She is currently also secretary general of the Global Federation of Insurance Associations (GFIA). Prior to joining Insurance Europe in February 2007, she was holding management positions in different banking trade bodies. Michaela has served as a member of various consumer/industry groups and advisory groups established by the European Commission. She has also been a member of both stakeholder groups of the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA): the Insurance and Reinsurance stakeholder group (IRSG) and the Occupational Pension stakeholder group (OPSG). She currently chairs EIOPA’s IRSG. She is a German national and holds a law degree from Augsburg University.

Monique Goyens

Director General of BEUC

As Director General of BEUC, Monique represents 46 independent national consumer associations in 32 European countries, acting as a strong consumer voice in Brussels, ensuring that consumer interests are given weight in the development of policies and raising the visibility and effectiveness of the consumer movement through lobbying EU institutions and media contacts.

As a consumer expert and advocate, and on behalf of BEUC, Monique is a member of the EU Platform on Sustainable Finance and of the Euro Retail Payments Board. She is a member of the European Commission’s Consumer Policy Advisory Group, High-Level Roundtable on the Chemicals Strategy for Sustainability, and Structured Dialogue on Security of Medicines Supply. She is also a member of the Advisory Group on Noncommunicable Diseases of WHO Region Europe. Previously, she was a member of the expert group on “Online Disinformation” (2018), the expert group on “trade agreements” (2018-2019), the EU High Level Forum for the Capital Market Union (2020) and sub-group on Artificial Intelligence, Connected Products and other new Challenges in Product Safety (2020). She was also Vice-Chair of the European Advisory Board of the Open Society Foundations (2017-2020).

In her capacity as BEUC Director General, Monique is currently EU Co-Chair of the Transatlantic Consumer Dialogue (TACD) a network of EU and US consumer organisations, and she also represents BEUC at Consumers International, the international consumer organisation.

Apart from championing consumers’ rights, Monique’s passions/challenges are her family & cooking for friends – including delicious veggie meals.

Stéphanie Yon-Courtin

Member of the European Parliament

Stéphanie Yon-Courtin is a French Member of the European Parliament in the Renew Europe group. She is Vice-Chair of the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs (ECON), and a substitute member in the IMCO committee and in the sub-committee on taxation (FISC). She is particularly involved in legislative discussions related to insurance and distribution of financial products, notably as shadow rapporteur for the Solvency review, for the Insurance Distribution Directive and for the PRIIPs Regulation.

She is Chair of the delegation for relations with Canada and a member of the delegation for relations with the United States and of the delegation for relations with the United Kingdom. Stéphanie is also a member of the Normandy Regional Council.

Prior to her election as an MEP in 2019, she was Mayor of Saint-Contest, and a Vice-President of the urban community Caen la Mer. Prior to that, Stéphanie worked as an advisor on international affairs in the office of Bruno Lasserre, former President of the French Competition Authority. She was admitted to the Paris Bar in 2004, specialising in competition law, and worked in international law firms. She also worked as a legal expert in the European Commission.

Stéphanie holds a Master's degree in law from the Universities of Caen and Bristol, and a Master's degree in European Business Law from the Institute of European Studies.

Panel 2: Reflecting new risk into regulatory frameworks

Conor Donaldson

Chief Executive Officer, the Global Asia Insurance Partnership (GAIP)

Conor is the CEO of the Global Asia Insurance Partnership (GAIP), a tripartite partnership between academia, the global insurance industry, and regulators and policymakers to support the future development and needs of the insurance sector.

Before GAIP, Conor was a member of the senior management team at the International Association of Insurance Supervisors’ (IAIS) with responsibility for deepening understanding and observance of the IAIS’ supervisory material. Conor initiated assessment programmes, built strategic partnerships with multilateral development banks and technical assistance providers in support of capacity building and supervisory development worked with supervisors to advance financial inclusion.

During his time at the IAIS, Conor was also a board member of the Access to Insurance Initiative, a multilateral partnership between the development community and insurance supervisors, the Toronto Centre’s Advisory Board for Insurance and Pensions and represented the IAIS in global forums looking at standards implementation. 

Didier Millerot

 Head of Unit, Directorate General for Financial Stability, Financial Services and Capital Markets Union (DG FISMA), European Commission

Didier is a lawyer with a Private law degree from the University of Lille and a post-graduate in EU law from the Université Libre de Bruxelles.

Didier started his career in the Commission in 1994, dealing with international relations in the social field. He moved to DG MARKT end of 1997 where he occupied different positions.

Didier became Head of the Financial Reporting and Accounting Unit in July 2012 in DG FISMA. He then moved to the Banking and Financial Conglomerates Unit in 2015 a time during which the Investment Firms review and the Covered Bonds initiative were adopted. Didier then became the Head of the Insurance and Pensions Unit in April 2019.

Kathleen A. Birrane

Insurance Commissioner, Maryland Insurance Administration

Kathleen A. Birrane was appointed Maryland Insurance Commissioner by Governor Larry Hogan in May 2020.

Prior to her appointment, Commissioner Birrane was a partner in the Insurance Sector and Litigation and Regulatory Practice Group at the global law firm of DLA Piper LLP (US), where her practice focused on insurance and reinsurance transactions, regulatory compliance and related litigation.

Earlier in her career, Commissioner Birrane served in the Maryland Office of the Attorney General in the statutory position of Principal Counsel to the Maryland Insurance Administration. In that role, she managed all of the legal work of the agency, both in its capacity as regulator and as a unit of state government.

She is currently a member of the Executive Committee of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) and Chair of its new Innovation, Cybersecurity, and Technology (H) Committee.

Commissioner Birrane is also Vice Chair of the NAIC’s Northeast Zone, Co-Vice Chair of the Climate and Resiliency Task Force, and Co-Chair of the Health Insurance Workstream Special Committee on Race and Insurance.

Additionally, Commissioner Birrane is a member of the steering committee of the EU-U.S. Insurance Dialogue Project and is Chair of the Interstate Insurance Product Regulation Commission.

Nynke Brouwer

Senior Associate, Cybersecurity, Cyber Insurance and Data Protection Expert, Stibbe

Dr. Nynke Brouwer is a lawyer and academic researcher. She has been a lawyer since 2011. In June 2022 she joined the international law firm Stibbe in Amsterdam. Specializing in cybersecurity and data protection, as well as liability and insurance law, she has a wealth of experience in advising and litigating in these fields of law. She supports a wide range of clients, including insurers and brokers, healthcare institutions, governments, companies and organizations. Nynke frequently advises on cybersecurity issues and provides incident response services after cyber incidents such as ransomware attacks. She has specific expertise in cyber insurance issues.

On 7 October 2021, Nynke received her PhD from Radboud University Nijmegen for her dissertation 'A Legal Perspective on Cyber Insurance' (in Dutch: 'De cyberverzekering vanuit civielrechtelijk perspectief'), which was published by Wolters Kluwer. Nynke wrote her dissertation as an external PhD candidate at the Radboud Business Law Institute in four years, alongside her work as a lawyer. She is still affiliated to Radboud University as a research fellow.

In 2021, Nynke was awarded the national title of Legal Woman of the Year (www.legalwomen.nl).

Panel 3: Conduct supervision as a building block to financial health

Guillaume Prache

Managing Director, Better Finance

Guillaume Prache is the Managing Director of BETTER FINANCE, the European Federation of Investors and Financial Services Users. He is also one of the experts representing financial services users at the European Commission (lately as member of the High Level Forum on the CMU), at ESMA (Securities & Markets Stakeholder Group), at EIOPA (Insurance and Reinsurance Stakeholder Group), and at the French financial regulator AMF.  He has been the first chair of the ESMA Stakeholder Group, and former vice chair of the European Commission’s FSUG (Financial Services User Group) and member of the EIOPA Pensions and EBA Banking Stakeholder Groups.

He started as a magistrate at the French Court of Auditors, and has an extended and international experience in financial matters, most recently as Chief Financial Officer of Rhône-Poulenc Rorer, Inc., a “Fortune 500” publicly-listed pharmaceutical company (today Sanofi) from 1997 to 2000, and then as Managing Director of the European affiliate of the Vanguard Group, Inc., a global leader in asset management, from 2000 to 2006.

He has taught asset management for the CIWM (Certified International Wealth Manager) program and wrote two books (Politique économique contemporaine in 1989, Les Scandales de l’épargne retraite in 2008) and various articles on economics and finance.

Matti Leppälä

Secretary General/CEO, PensionsEurope

PensionsEurope is the leading voice for funded pensions in Europe representing 25 European national pension fund associations covering over 100 million Europeans and € 7 trillion of assets. 

Matti is a member and was the chair and vice-Chair in 2013-2018 of the Occupational Pensions Stakeholder Group of EU supervisory authority EIOPA, a member of the European Commission’s High Level Group of Experts on Pensions 2018 – 2019 and the chair of the World Pension Alliance 2018 – 2019.

Before joining PensionsEurope in 2011 Matti worked for 11 years for The Finnish Pension Alliance in EU and international affairs, investment policy and legal issues. In 1990’s Matti worked for the Finnish trade unions in collective bargaining, labor law and social policy. In 1986 Matti started his professional career at the Law Drafting Department of the Ministry of Justice in Finland.

Matti has a LLM and an Executive MBA in Insurance and Financial services.

Nathalie Berger

 Director for Support to Member States' Reforms, DirectorateGeneral for Structural Reform Support, European Commission

Nathalie leads the DG REFORM Directorate that provides technical assistance to growth enhancing reforms in the Member States in the areas of revenue administration and public financial management, governance and public administration, sustainable growth and business environment, labour market, education, health and social services, and financial sector and access to finance. The Directorate’s responsibility encompasses support to the Member States’ reforms for the implementation of the Recovery and Resilience Plans.

Prior to taking up this position in May 2021, Nathalie led the European Commission DG FISMA Unit on Banking Regulation and Supervision that brought forward the Commission’s response and exceptional measures following the Covid-19 pandemic and promotes a stable, sustainable and integrated banking sector through robust but proportionate prudential rules and integrated supervision. Previously, between 2015 and 2019, Nathalie was in charge of Insurance and Pensions, with responsibilities covering the Solvency II review, consumer insurance, motor insurance and pension funds. Major achievements include the Pan-European Personal Pension Product (« PEPP »), a flagship measure under the Capital Markets Union, and the EU/US Covered Agreement on insurance and reinsurance, removing collateral requirements imposed on EU reinsurers in the US. Beforehand, Nathalie had been leading the Unit responsible for Audit and Credit Rating Agencies, since 2012.

She previously worked as an expert in company law and corporate governance, and from 2007 onwards as a Deputy Head of Unit in charge of Relations with the European Parliament and Council as well as Policy Coordination. Nathalie started her career as a university researcher and lecturer, and free-lance consultant for a banking group. She joined the European Commission in 2000, mainly responsible for the development of Commission implementing powers in the field of financial services. She was a member of the Commission Task Force on the Future of the European Union and an advisor to the Commission representatives at the European Convention and Intergovernmental Conference 2002-2004. A French national, Nathalie holds a Ph.D. Doctorate in Law and a Bachelor of Arts in Politics. She is the author of several articles and a book on European law and policies.

Paul Carty

Chairman, EU Committee, European Federation of Insurance Intermediaries (BIPAR)

Over a thirty-five-year career in the insurance industry, Paul has been the Director of the National Insurance Brokers Association, Chief Executive of the Irish Brokers Association which for a decade was recognised under statute as a regulatory body, Director of the National Investor Compensation Company, a Partner and Head of Private and Commercial at Coyle Hamilton, President of the Irish Brokers Association. Paul has also served as President of the Irish Brokers Association, BIPAR (European Federation of Insurance Intermediary Associations), and WFII (World Federation of Insurance Intermediaries).

Currently, Paul is Managing Director of a retail and wholesale Insurance Brokerage, Director of AIBIS (bank insurance intermediary) and AXA Travel Insurance.  He is currently the Chairman of BIPAR's EU Standing Committee (European Federation of Insurance Intermediaries), has been a member of the consultative panel of CEIOPS and then a member of the EIOPA Insurance & Reinsurance Stakeholder Group.

Through his participation over a quarter of a century in making his contribution to the development of a regulatory regime for insurance intermediaries both nationally and at European level, Paul has a very keen sense of the importance of the role and responsibility of intermediaries in the interface between consumers and industry.

Stasys Jakeliunas

Member of the European Parliament

Stasys Jakeliūnas is a member of the European Parliament from Lithuania. He works at ECON and is chair of the FinTech working group. In 1987 he graduated from Vilnius University with a degree in psychology. His interests in this area include cognitive (behavioural) economics and finance.

During 1993-1995 he lived and studied in the USA and graduated with a master’s degree in business administration (finance) from Michigan State University. He has worked for ten years as investment manager and CFO for the largest insurance group in the Baltic states. Since 2007, he has been writing and commenting on finance, economics and politics, and in 2010 he published a book in Lithuanian called “The Anatomy of Lithuanian Crisis”.

In 2016, he was elected to the Lithuanian Parliament (Seimas) and chaired the Budget and Finance Committee. He initiated the privately funded pension system reform and led the parliamentary inquiry into the 2009-2010 economic crisis in Lithuania.

A book about the inquiry and its findings, “Wild Horses from Sweden“, was published in English in the autumn of 2020. Another book about banking in Lithuania, “The Swedbank Case”, was published in English in the summer of the same year.