Prof. Samuel da Rocha Lopes

Samuel Da-Rocha-Lopes is Senior Economic Analyst at the European Banking Authority (EBA-European System of Financial Supervision), coordinating several EU projects and representative of the EBA in several fora (BIS Research Group; European Commission Insolvency Frameworks; Basel III RCAP implementation; etc). He is also a former Economist at the European Central Bank (ECB) and senior adviser at Banco de Portugal, working in Financial Stability and Supervision, Financial Research and Risk Management departments, and has over 20 years of work experience in risk management.

A Portuguese and British national, he holds a doctoral degree in Finance from ISCTE-University Institute of Lisbon. He has been teaching at Executive Education programs, also through The World Bank projects and as assistant professor and visiting lecturer in different universities (Nova SBE, Nova IMS, Aarhus, etc.).

He has published in reputed academic journals such as Review of Financial Studies, Review of Accounting Studies, among others, as well as editorial member of the EBA Staff Papers and reviewer of several reputable academic journals.

Dr. Rita Bairros

Rita Bairros has been working at Banco de Portugal since 2005 and is currently the Coordinator of the Payment Systems Regulation Area, where she provides legal advisory services on national and European payment systems regulatory frameworks, as well as on the provision of payment services. She also focuses on topics such as crypto-assets regulation and innovation in payment services. From December 2014 to March 2017, she worked at the European Banking Authority (EBA) as a retail banking expert in the Consumer Protection, Financial Innovation, and Payments division. Rita holds a Law degree from the Faculty of Law of the University of Lisbon and a Master’s degree in Banking and Insurance Law from the same institution.

Dr. Vinay Pranjivan

Graduated in Economics by ISEG-Lisbon (1998) and holds an MSc in Business and Competition Economics by ISCTE – Business School (2017). He is a consultant, expert on consumer protection in financial services. Currently an advisor for DECO – the Portuguese Consumer Protection Association, on issues related to users of financial services.

Vinay Pranjivan is an Economist and expert in financial services, consumer protection, financial literacy, financial inclusion, and innovation. With almost 20 years of experience in these fields, Vinay has also participated in international projects such as “Financial literacy for investors in the securities market in Portugal”, for the CMVM – June 2020-May 2021 (under DG Reform), and “Sector Dialogues – Exchange of experience in the Supervision of Payment Institutions”, for Banco Central do Brasil - May-November 2019.

Having worked in different companies, his focus on financial consumer protection includes working for the European Banking Authority between 2013 and 2016 and being a Member of 2 EU Commission expert groups, and 2 Stakeholders Groups of the European Supervisory Authorities (EBA BSG and EIOPA IRSG). His training experience includes the Supervisory Digital Finance Academy, of the Florence EUI, and financial education programs by DECO and NOVA SBE.