Damian is head of A&O’s UK Financial Services regulatory practice. He advises financial institutions on national and international regulations, with a particular focus on derivatives and securities regulation and the development of new markets and clearing settlement systems. He regularly advises banks on regulatory reform, including changes to custody requirements, payment systems and the authorisation processes to open new branches and subsidiaries. Damian has assisted industry associations with developing standard form documentation and submitting responses to consultations with regulators. He is also a leading legal and regulatory expert in financial market infrastructure and has been involved in a variety of innovative bank and infrastructure projects as digital assets and distributed ledger technology become an ever more important part of the financial landscape.

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Mathew is global head of Digital Assets. He serves as a member of the
Goldman Sachs International Asset and Liability Committee and the Goldman Sachs International Bank Management Committee.
Previously, Mathew was global head of Cross Asset Financing. He joined the firm as a vice president in 2005 in the European Special Situations Group in London and was named managing director in 2010.
Prior to joining the firm, Mathew worked at Morgan Stanley in the Securitized Products Group, focusing on structuring, financing and risk management.
Mathew is a board member of the International Securities Lending Association.
Mathew earned a BA (Hons) in Accounting and Finance at Nottingham. He has been a member of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants since 1999.

Philippe advises on capital markets and banking & finance matters. His area of practice notably includes derivatives, securitisation and banking regulatory matters (MiFID II, EMIR and CSD-R).
He is a member of the Luxembourg Banking Lawyers’ Association (ALJB), the Digital Strategy Committee and the “Distributed Ledger Technology” working group of the Luxembourg Bankers' Association (ABBL). He is also an active member of our FinTech task force, supporting clients from established financial institutions, incumbents and start-ups in developing innovative products.
Philippe holds a Master’s Degree in Global Business Law and Governance conjointly obtained from the Sciences Po Law School, Columbia Law School and Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne University. He also holds a Bachelor of Commerce obtained from the John Molson School of Business in Montreal, Canada. Philippe joined Allen & Overy in 2015.

Victoria is AFME’s Director of Fixed Income, having joined the association in November 2015. She is responsible for the AFME Primary Dealers, Credit and Covered Bond Boards, focusing on developments in regulation, policy and market structure. Victoria has more than 19 years of fixed income experience in banking, vendor sales, broking and market making. Prior to joining AFME, Victoria worked at Barclays Investment Bank in a role focused on fixed income electronic trading.

Xavier has over 15 years of banking experience. He joined the EIB in 2009 running the Eastern European funding portfolio (RUB, TRY, PLN, HUF, RON) before taking over the responsibility of the GBP funding programme for the institution in 2011. He managed among other things the first public tender of the EIB in GBP as well as the issuance of the first SONIA FRN. For the last 2 years Xavier has been working on the new Risk Free Rates and issued benchmarks based on SOFR, ESTR and SONIA, lately he was involved with the structuring of the blockchain transaction. Prior to joining the EIB Xavier held various responsibilities at CM-CIC and BNP Paribas mainly in the debt or debt capital markets side of business. Xavier graduated from the University of Nancy with a master in European law and a master in Finance; he also holds a master degree in strategy from the University of Växjö (Sweden).