Simmons & Simmons

Financial Markets

Ugo is a Counsel in our Financial Markets department in Milan.

He is associate professor (and full professor qualified) of Economic and Financial Markets Law at the University of Trento (where he is deputy director of the Phd School of Comparative and European Legal Studies), as well as in charge of courses and lectures at Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Milan, on Market Abuse, Sustainable Finance, Bank Resolution, Digital Finance and DeFi.

Ugo has developed strong expertise on regulatory issues, including insurance and bank regulatory capital, digital and decentralized finance (blockchain and AI) issues as well as transition finance (ESG).

He advises on such relevant aspects a number of market players, including banks and regulated intermediaries, trading venues, clearing systems, issuers, borrowers, lenders, underwriters, investors on both equity and debt instruments, including the full range of products from structured finance and securitisations through to commercial papers (CP), hybrid instruments and debt issuance programmes, high yield bonds and equity capital markets products (right issues, mandatory bids, convertible and exchangeable bonds) and the issuance of other debt instruments (such as promissory notes or registered bonds), as well as on restructurings, liability management and on regulatory issues, including insurance and bank regulatory capital.

He assists Banks, Asset Managers, Public Institutions, Listed and Close Companies on an extended range of regulatory, corporate and commercial issues, with a strong focus on banking and financial regulation in its full scope (MiFID, PSD, MAR, CRD IV and CRR, BRRD, CCD, MCD, securitization law, law on usury, Non-Financial Disclosure), including litigation on administrative sanctions (market abuse) and on the exercise of supervisory powers.

Ugo is also Member of public bodies and committees, eg the Arbitrator for Financial Controversies (ACF), the Italian Financial Markets Authority's (Consob) financial ombudsman; by appointment of the Italian Minister of Economy and Finance, he has been Member of the Technical Commission of the Italian Savers Indemnification Fund (Fondo Indennizzo Risparmiatori). Ugo regularly liaises and assists key players in the European market, including industry associations and institutional bodies (Single Resolution Board, the Bank of Italy, the Italian Government, CONSOB) and is member of transnational research hubs as the European Law Institute (Wien) and the European Banking Institute (Frankfurt).

Ugo has obtained a PhD in Finance and Securities Law from Bocconi University, Milan, and has been a Visiting Researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law in Hamburg.

Ugo joined us in 2023.