Professor Michele Siri

ACADEMIC POSITIONS

Michele Siri is full professor of commercial law at the University of Genoa and teaches commercial law, capital market law, financial market law and insurance law in the Department of Law and the Department of Economics. He is a member of the teaching board of the PhD in Law and participates in the national PhD in Sustainable Development and Climate Change (PhD SDC) at IUSS PAVIA (from 2021). He directs the Genoa Centre for Law and Finance, the interdisciplinary research unit dedicated to the regulation of capital markets at the national, EU and international levels.

He also teaches the law of financial intermediaries and markets in the master course in Economics and Management of Financial Institutions and Markets at the Luigi Bocconi University. As part of the LLM training, he is an adjunct professor in the EBI master in EU Banking and Financial Regulation at the Frankfurt School of Finance and Management and gives lectures in the master in European Banking Law at the University of Bologna and in the Master in Compliance in Financial Institutions at the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Milan. He is a member of the scientific committee of Nedcommunity, the association of non-executive and independent directors.

His main research interests include European capital market regulation, sustainable finance, corporate governance, investor protection and supervision of insurance and financial intermediaries. He is the author of a monograph on the competitive regulation of stock markets, three other volumes on insurance law and regulation and over a hundred articles on financial market law. He contributes to the main international academic platforms (Oxford Business Law Blog; Columbia Law School's Blog on Corporation and the Capital Markets; Duke University Financial Economics Center FinReg Blog). 

His most recent works are dedicated to ESG stewardship in the European landscape (ECGI European Corporate Governance Institute, Law WP 743/2023), to the self-regulatory codes of listed and non-listed companies (Bocconi Legal Studies Research Paper No. 4328588), to the European legislation on ESG ratings (ECMI European Capital Markets Institute Working Paper No. 15/2022), to the proposal for a directive on directors' duties in the context of the action plan measures on sustainable finance (ECGI European Corporate Governance Institute - Law Working Paper No. 576/2021), to the regulatory implications of using fintech for the transition to sustainability (EBOR European Company and Financial Law Review 2022) and the regulatory and technological evolution of equity and derivatives markets (Financial Market Infrastructures: Law and Regulation, Oxford University Press 2021). Works in progress include a forthcoming volume for Cambridge University Press on EU Sustainable Finance Regulation, Supervision and Governance(2024).

He is the director (since 2020) of the Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence on EU Sustainable Finance and Law (EUSFiL), a study centre of European relevance, established with a grant awarded through a competitive call under the Erasmus Jean Monnet Actions, dedicated to academic research and public debate on the transition to a sustainable financial system. The Centre is engaged in research, training and third mission activities and aims to broaden the debate beyond traditional academic boundaries in order to help bridge the gap between theory and practice in sustainable financial governance.

He is the winner and coordinator (since 2023) of the PRIN 2022 Research Project of Significant National Interest, promoted by the Ministry of Universities and Research, on 'ESG Factors and Greenwashing' for the SH Social Sciences and Humanities Macro-Sector SH2 Institutions, Governance and Legal Systems, which focuses on understanding ESG factors and exploring their implications for corporate law and financial regulation.

INSTITUTIONAL APPOINTMENTS

He is the President (since 2021) and a member (since 2018) of the Joint Board of Appeal of the Supervisory Authorities (EBA, ESMA and EIOPA), the independent body that is in charge of adjudicating appeals by natural and legal persons against decisions of individual relevance taken in the exercise of the mandate conferred by the founding regulations on the European financial supervisory authorities. 

He is an academic member of the COMI, Committee of Market Operators and Investors, established by CONSOB for the consultation of stakeholders (since 2019). In this context, he chaired the sustainable finance panel and coordinated the working group on the simplification of the listing prospectuses listing prospectuses, secondary offering and offer of debt instruments, which led to the approval of the first COMI guidelines implemented by CONSOB as a recommendation to the market practitioners in July 2023.

He was a permanent member of the Consultative Working Group for Investor Protection and Intermediaries Standing Committee (IPISC), appointed by ESMA, the European Securities and Markets Authority (2017-2018).

ACADEMIC APPOINTMENTS AND AWARDS 

He was a member of the Commission for the award of the National Scientific Qualification (a prerequisite for applying for tenured associate or full professor positions in state-recognised universities) for the panel IUS-04 Business Law, appointed by the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research (2021-2023).

He was appointed by the Ministry of Education, Science, Research and Sport of the Slovak Republic as an expert evaluator in the field of law for the first national research evaluation (Periodic evaluation of research, development, artistic and other creative activities, sub-panel law, 2022).

He received the annual ECMI European Capital Markets Institute 2022 award for the best paper on financial markets for a paper co-authored with M. Gargantini on regulatory policy options for sustainability ratings in the European Union. The paper was presented at the 2022 Annual Conference organised by CEPS - Centre for European Policy Studies in Brussels (9 November 2022).

With a grant awarded following a competitive call in the framework of the Erasmus Jean Monnet Actions, he held a professorship focusing on the cross-sectoral legislation in the EU financial markets (Jean Monnet Professor on EU Financial and Insurance Markets Regulation 2017-2023). 

He is an evaluator registered with REPRISE, the register of independent scientific experts, set up at the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research, for the evaluation of basic research, competitive industrial research and social development and for the dissemination of scientific culture (2015-).

EDITORIAL BOARDS

He is a member of the editorial board of AIDA Europe Research Studies on Insurance Law and Regulation (Springer) and EBI Studies in Banking and Capital Markets Law (Palgrave Macmillan). He is a referee for various international journals and publishers, including: European Company and Financial Law Review (De Gruyter), Journal of Enviromental Management (Elsevier), European Journal of Social Security (Intersentia), Law Department, Oxford University Press (OUP), Review of European, Comparative & International Environmental Law (Wiley). 

He is the editor of Banca Impresa Società (Il Mulino) and Assicurazioni (Giappichelli), class A journals listed by ANVUR (the Italian Agency for the Evaluation of University Research) for the award of the National Scientific Qualification. He is a referee for several Italian journals, including: Rivista delle Società (Giuffrè), Rivista Orizzonti del Diritto Commerciale (Giappichelli) and Rivista di Diritto Bancario (University of Trento). 

SCIENTIFIC AFFILIATIONS AND ASSOCIATIONS

He is an academic participant in the SUSFIN Research Network for Sustainable Finance at the University of Zurich (2020).

He is a member of the Community of Practice in Financial Research (CoPFiR), established by the Joint Research Center of the European Commission (2019-).

He is an academic fellow and board member of the scientific committee of the EBI European Banking Institute in Frankfurt (2018-).

He is an academic member of the ECGI European Corporate Governance Institute in Brussels (since 2015).

He is affiliated to the CETIF Research Centre on Technology, Innovation and Financial Services of the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart in Milan (2014-).

He is associated with: AEDBF - European Society for Banking and Financial Law; ELI - European Law Institute; ODC - Italian Association of University Professors of Commercial Law; ADDE - Italian Association of University Professors of Economic Law; ADP - Associazione Disiano Preite per lo studio del diritto dell'impresa; AIDA - International Association of Insurance Law; Nedcommunity - Italian Association of Non-Executive and Independent Directors, Members of Corporate Governance and Control Bodies.

NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCES

Sustainable Finance and Greenwashing, International study conference on the seventieth anniversary of the Journal of Companies 'The s.p.a. in the age of sustainability and technological transition' 10-11 November 2023.

ESG ratings and policy implications, CIRSF Annual International Conference 2023 on 'Critical challenges for the financial sector entering the second quarter of the 21st Century', Lisbon. CIRSF - Research Center on Regulation and Supervision of the Financial Sector - Banco de Portugal and Portuguese Securities Commission (CMVM), 9-10 October 2023.

Insurance Regulatory Framework for Sustainability Risks and Factors, International Conference on 'Banking and Finance in Stressed Times: Climate, Resilience and Exit', Universidad Complutense and Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, 11-12 May 2023.

ESMA's mandate in sustainable finance, European Banking Institute conference on 'Regulating and Supervising Capital Markets in the EU. Trends and Challenges', online, 8-9 November 2022.

Information Intermediaries and Sustainability: ESG ratings and benchmarks in the European Union, with Matteo Gargantini, CEPS - ECRI Annual Conference 2022 CEPS - Centre for European Policy Studies and European Capital Markets Institute, Brussels, 9 November 2022.

Sustainable Finance and Fintech: Can Technology Contribute to Achieving Environmental Goals? A Preliminary Assessment of 'Green FinTech', with E. Macchiavello, online conference, University of Zurich and University of Geneva, Zurich, Switzerland, 25 March 2021.

A Proposal for a temporarily amended version of Precautionary Recapitalisation under the Single Resolution Mechanism Regulation involving the European Stability Mechanism, with C. Gortos and M. Bodellini, International Conference on 'Bank resolution in times of COVID-19', Single Resolution Board and European University Institute, Brussels, 27 November 2020.

The European Prospectus Regulation, International Conference on 'The Prospectus Regime in the age of Covid', online, Università Bocconi and Rivista delle Società, Milan, 17 July 2020.

Equity and Derivatives Exchanges: Market and Ownership Structures and Regulatory Framework, International Conference on 'The Law and Regulation of Financial Market Infrastructure: A Trans-Atlantic Perspective on Securities and Derivatives Markets', Eberhard Karls University Tübingen and George Mason University, Antonin Scalia Law School, Tübingen, 30-31 January 2020.