School of Law hosts Leeds Financial and FinTech Law Conference 2023
The conference was hosted by the Centre for Business Law and Practice (CBLP) and co-organised with the Singapore Management University's Centre for AI and Data Governance (CAIDG).
On 11 May 2023, the School of Law hosted the Leeds Financial and FinTech Law Conference 2023, co-organised with the Singapore Management University's Centre for AI and Data Governance (CAIDG). The conference attracted 100 registrants and over 50 attendees from the Leeds city region, including FinTech companies, Law School and Business School scholars from various universities from Northern England, legal and financial experts, consultancies, and policymakers, among others.
The full-day event included an opening by Professor Peter Whelan (University of Leeds), Dr Virág Blazsek (University of Leeds), with a keynote delivered by Sir Roger Marsh OBE DL, an alumnus of the University of Leeds, and currently a Senior Business and Strategy Adviser at Squire, Patton, Boggs LLP, Leeds (also Chair of the NP11 group of Northern Local Enterprise Partnerships; Chair of the Piece Hall Trust; and Commissioner of The Global Britain Commission) and a presentations by Julian Wells (Whitecap Consulting, Leeds), Richelle Schuster (Head of Innovation - Design and Impact, Leeds City Council) and Martyn Long (Head of Employment and Skills Development, Leeds City Council).
Watch a recording from the event here.
The opening was followed by three panel discussions on comparative and particular issues related to secondary financial and FinTech centres with a stellar list of speakers, including Professor Richard Squire (Fordham University School of Law, New York, NY; Liberty Fellow 2023 at Leeds Law), Assistant Professor Nydia Remolina and Associate Professor Aurelio Gurrea Martinez (both from the Singapore Management University), Alison Lui (Reader in Corporate and Financial Law, Liverpool John Moores University School of Law), Professor Iain Clacher (Pro Dean – International, Leeds University Business School), Paul Anderson (Partner, Financial Services, Squire Patton Boggs LLP, Leeds), Christopher Sier (Chairman of Fintech North, Professor of Financial Technology, University of Leeds), Andrew Northage (Regulatory & Compliance Partner, Head of International Trade, Walker Morris LLP, Leeds), and Dr Nabi Omidvar (Leeds University Business School).
Securing a Michael Beverley Innovation Fellowship funding for my Leeds Financial and FinTech Hub research project in 2022 enabled me to organise this wonderful conference. My research project aims at identifying the legal-regulatory issues related to secondary financial centres, like Leeds. This conference has helped me to connect with regional stakeholders in the Leeds Financial and FinTech Centre and learn more about their different perspectives. In my forthcoming policy recommendations, those learnings will be reflected. My objective has been to connect our Centre for Business Law and Practice with local law firms, policymakers, regulators, and financial services companies, which we can tie back to both our research and teaching activities here at the University of Leeds School of Law.
The School of Law's Centre for Business Law and Practice was represented by various speakers and panel chairs at the conference, including Dr Karina Patricio Ferreira Lima, Dr Virág Blazsek, Professor Andrew Campbell, Dr Steven Montagu-Cairns, Pedro Magalhães Batista, and Dr Alvaro Pereira. Various excellent scholars based in Northern England honoured the conference with their active participation, including Dr Clara Martins Pereira (Durham Law), Dr. Neeti Shikha (University of Bradford), among many others.
