BonelliErede’s international expansion continues with new Frankfurt outpost
18 May 2018

Following the openings in Cairo and Addis Ababa in 2016 and Dubai in 2017, BonelliErede’s international expansion adds a new milestone in Europe with the opening of an outpost in Frankfurt (home to the ECB and Europe’s leading financial hub) at the offices of the fellow Best Friend firm Hengeler Mueller.

Thanks to BonelliErede’s extensive experience in regulated sectors subject to supervisory authorities, the firm stands as a privileged interlocutor in the field of banking and financial regulation, particularly with the ECB in Frankfurt and the European Banking Authority in Paris. Through the Single Supervisory Mechanism (SSM), the ECB directly oversees 120 significant banking groups, which account for 82% of the Eurozone’s banking sector assets. The Single Resolution Mechanism and the SSM are the two pillars of the EU banking union. The ECB is also responsible for granting and revoking banking licences and for conducting the prudential assessments of the purchase and disposal of qualifying holdings in credit institutions.

Thanks to the Frankfurt outpost, the firm’s financial regulatory practice (led by Giuseppe Rumi) is now able to offer better-than-ever all-round assistance with the most sensitive issues of interpretation and the correct implementation of EU banking and financial regulatory law, which increasingly involve the Frankfurt-based authorities, in addition to the Italian authorities. The Frankfurt outpost completes the offer of the historic Brussels office, which supports clients with matters concerning competition, state aid and European regulatory law.

The new outpost is headed up by Giuseppe Rumi, who (besides leading the financial regulatory practice) is the coordinator of the Best Friends European Financial Institutions Group – a working group of leading financial regulatory experts from the Best Friends network (BonelliErede, Bredin Prat in France, De Brauw in the Netherlands, Hengeler Mueller in Germany, Slaughter and May in the UK and Uría Menéndez in Spain and Portugal). Giuseppe Rumi will divide his time between Milan and Frankfurt. To further strengthen our local ties, a secondment programme for our associates has been set up with Hengeler Mueller.

Stefano Simontacchi and Marcello Giustiniani, BonelliErede’s co-managing partners, commented: “The strategically positioned Frankfurt outpost is another stride forward in our strategy to strengthen our multidisciplinary approach to meet our clients increasingly international needs and focus on cross-border practices”.