Michael Salmony

Michael is an internationally recognised leader on business innovations especially in the digital and financial services space.

He is board-level advisor to major international organisations, for example to

– the German Banking community “Deutsche Kreditwirtschaft” of 2277 Banks with aggregated assets of 7626 billion€

– industry associations such as the EACB’s 4056 banks with aggregated assets of 7 trillion€ and their 210 million customers throughout the EU

– to European decision making bodies, for example

– the European Commission, chairing the Public Hearing on Innovations for the Green Paper on Retail Financial Services with Lord Hill, also part of Steering Committee to improve European competitiveness/efficiency by 243bn€ p.a. towards the EU’s Lisbon Agenda, also member of commission expert group on electronic identification and remote KYC processes

– the EPC – the decision making body of the 8000 banks in the 31 countries of Europe

– the ERPB – the central multi-stakeholder strategy board chaired by the Executive Board of the ECB for the future of payments in Europe

– and further national and international boards.

He is much in demand as a keynote speaker at international events not only across Europe but also in Japan, China, Russia and Australia. He regularly appears on TV/Radio/all electronic media on advances in finance and is quoted extensively (e.g. JPSS, FT Financial Times, UK Telegraph, FAZ Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, SZ, Handelsblatt, Börsen Zeitung, Harvard Business Manager, New Scientist, Economist and by business schools and governments from Ghana to Malaysia).

He has published much own original work which has been translated into many languages including German, Italian, Dutch, Finnish, Polish, Russian and Japanese.
He is extensively networked into the new financial services space and has the top 5% most viewed profile out of the 200 million members on LinkedIn.

Ronald de Bont

In my role as senior manager/consultant for Compliance and Audit I am specialized in IT and Operations in international financial services environments. I am focused on innovation and technology, specifically PSD2 Open Banking, Blockchain and Cloud Computing. I have an in-depth knowledge of payments and clearing processing including compliance related aspects like AML/STF transactions monitoring/filtering. Other specialist areas are operational risks related to information security and business continuity.

I have a special interest for new developments, be it cyber security, cloud computing, block chain initiatives, outsourcing or behavioral auditing. Furthermore I am interested in building and developing compliance or audit functions including setting up an infrastructure based on my lengthy experience.

In my advisory role I believe in partnership and the importance of adding sustainable value to the organisation. Providing clear and tangible advice that can be implemented effectively. Recommendations should match the needs of organisations as a whole and have the ability to be implemented.

In my leadership role I believe it’s of utmost importance to empower staff and stimulate their growth potential. I am easy accessible for my team members, fair, reliable and quality driven, hard-working and hands-on. Partnership and teamwork is key for me, in my view a team can perform better than separate individuals. I have experience in managing departments up to 40 employees.

Scott McInnes 

Scott is one of the leading experts in Europe regarding the regulation of payments. He has more than 15 years’ experience of competition law and payments regulatory law. He provides day-to-day legal advice on a broad range of competition law issues and regulatory issues impacting the payments sector in particular, including PSD2, Regulatory Technical Standards (RTS), the Interchange Fee Regulation (IFR), the EU Cross-Border Regulation, Dynamic Currency Conversion (DCC), the European Banking Authority (EBA) guidelines for the security of Internet payments, etc.

Before joining Bird & Bird LLP, Scott was Senior Regulatory Counsel at Mastercard, where he handled competition law investigations, private actions for damages, legal advice on various regulatory developments, as well as legal support to lobbying initiatives.

Before that, he was in the competition law department of Jones Day, where he worked extensively on matters regarding financial services, in particular the payment sector.

Scott was recently recognized as a “Future Leader” (under 45) by Who’s Who Legal, and received the 2017 Client Choice Award.