Dr. Dimitrios Tsibanoulis
Senior and Managing Partner
Co-head of the Banking & Finance
Co-head of the Capital Markets
Co-head of Corporate/M&A
Dimitris is a pre-eminent lawyer and the firm’s senior and Managing Director overseeing its client, people, practices, and growth strategies.
He works closely with the firm’s largest clients from the financial sector, a big part of his work cross-border in nature. Dimitris acts for reputable international and domestic banks, investment funds, sovereign wealth funds, asset management companies, fintech companies, credit institutions, rating agencies, and large Greek companies and multinational corporations. Dimitris was legal adviser to the Bank of Greece between February 1989 to December 2022. A seasoned litigator, Dimitris has successfully represented the Bank before the Council of State (the Highest Administrative Court of Greece) in defence of the Private Sector Involvement (PSI) procedure in more than 100 cases.
An academic and author, Dimitris often problematizes the argument that in the contemporary period law is evolving into a governing institution. A thought leader on governance issues and an expert on the impact of applicable regulatory frameworks on business and economic organization, he is involved in shaping policy through active participation in regulators and peak bodies. A senior legal expert in banking, Dimitris is a member of the European Financial Markets Lawyers Group (EFMLG), which is hosted by the European Central Bank and dedicated to driving the harmonization of laws and market practices across the EU countries and the integration of financial markets in Europe. Dimitris has served also on the European Commission’s EU Clearing & Settlement Legal Certainty Group, on the Insolvency Law Experts Group and on several other legal expert groups of the European Commission and the European Central Bank.
Sector - Industries
- Banking
- Investment Banking
- Capital Markets
- Growth Funds
- Financial Services
- Credit Institutions
- Rating Agencies
- Insurance
- Energy
- State Owned Entities
- Information Technologies
- NPLs
- Manufacturing and Industrials
- Construction
- Fintech.
Professional
Athens Bar, 1983
Acts before the Greek Supreme Court
Education
- Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität Frankfurt a.M., Dr. jur. (summa cum laude), 1986
- National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, LL.B., 1980
Languages
- English
- German
- French
- Greek
Academic
- Adjunct Professor in the Postgraduate Course for jurists at the University of Piraeus in the MSc Course “The financial and legal framework of money and capital markets” for “Capital Markets Law” and “Banking Law” (since 2019)
- Adjunct professor in the Postgraduate MBA Course for jurists (Athens Laboratory of Business Administration) for Financial Services Regulation at ALBA (2000 to 2015)
- Assistant at the Max-Planck-Institute, Department of History of European Law (1985-1987)
- Assistant Professor at the University of Frankfurt am Main (1985-1987)
- Academic Tutor at the University of Frankfurt am Main (1983-1985)
Appointments and Professional Memberships
- European Financial Market Lawyers Group (EFMLG), operating under the auspices of the ECB (European Central Bank), since 1999
- Board of Directors of Hellenic European Law Association (FIDE-Greece) since 2003 (since 2018 General Secretary)
- Board of Directors of European Society for Banking and Financial Law (AEDBF) since 2003 (Chairman 2012-2015)
- Board of Directors of the Hellenic Deposit & Investment Guarantee Fund (2009-2017)
- Insolvency Law Experts Group (ILEG) (European Commission, DG XV, 2010-2013)
- EU-Clearing and Settlement, Legal Certainty Group (European Commission, DG XV, 2005-2009
- Payment Systems Government Expert Group (European Commission, DG XV) (1999 – 2005)
- Board of Directors of KEPE (Center of Planning and Economic Research) (1995-2001)
- Numerous legislative Groups, advising on the drafting of Greek Banking and Securities Laws (since 1988)
- Several legal groups in the EMI, the ECB and the European Commission advising on matters pertaining to the regulation of Banking and Financial Markets and to payment and securities settlement systems in the EU (since 1992).
Awards
Testimonials
Recent news/Publications
- Non-Performing Loans and the legal interventions to tackle the difficulties in financing the Greek real economy through credit institutions, in: Economic Development and the Law, 20th Congress co-organized by the University of Piraeus and the Court of Audit, 2017, pp. 297-316
- The rules of intra-group financial support in credit institutions following the BRRD and Greek Law 4335/2015, in: The groups of companies, 26th Congress of the Greek Commercialists, 2017, pp. 365-386
- The economic environment as a factor for the legal evolution of the corporate forms: The case of the credit cooperative, in: Liber in Memoriam of Leonidas Georgakopoulos, 2016, vol. II, pp. 1103-1134
Recent Lectures
- Selling of subordinated eligible liabilities to retail clients (EFMLG Videoconference Meeting, May 2021)
- The effect of secondary EU financial services law on shaping the Greek banking and capital markets law (Online seminars on European and Union Law, Hellenic Association for European Law, April 2021)
- The German Federal Constitutional Court’s judgment on the ECB’s Public Sector Purchase Programme: An attempt to prevent the redefinition of monetary policy by the ECB?, (AEDBF International videoconference meeting, April 2021)
- The German Federal constitutional Court Judgment of 5 May 2020 on the legality of the ECB’s PSPP programme: Do the ECB’s purchases of government bonds in the secondary market constitute monetary policy? (Online webinar organized by the Hellenic Association for European Law, June 2020)
- Cryptocurrencies - Alternative means of payment or investment products? (AEDBF / Hellenic Association for Financial Law Conference, Athens, November 2019)
- Update on EU legislation on extrajudicial collateral enforcement (EFMLG Meeting, ECB, Frankfurt am Main, November 2019)
- The European Commission’s Proposal for a Directive on the recovery of collateral - The topic of the Accelerated Extrajudicial Collateral Enforcement Update (EFMLG Meeting, Nordea Bank, Stockholm, June 2019)
- Liability of the Board of Directors of SA companies (Centre of European Constitutional Law, Athens, March 2019)
- Special procedures of compulsory enforcement for claims in the financial sector: The proposal of the European Commission for a directive for an accelerated extrajudicial collateral enforcement mechanism including the mortgage loans (Hellenic European Law Association, Athens, Council of State, February 2019)
- The new legal framework of the Law 4548/2018 for the SA companies: the participation of shareholders in the General Meetings, especially in case of dematerialised shares held with omnibus accounts (Hellenic Commercial Law Association, Athens, January 2019)
- The European Commission’s Proposal for a Directive on credit servicers, credit purchasers and the recovery of collateral - The topic of the accelerated Extrajudicial Collateral Enforcement (EFMLG meeting, Frankfurt am Main, ECB, November 2018)
- Efficient handling of NPLs and development of Secondary Markets for NPLs in the EU: The European Commission’s Proposal for a Directive of March 2018 on credit servicers, credit purchasers and the recovery of collateral (Quadrilateral meeting of the FMLC / FMLG / FLB / EFMLG, Frankfurt am Main, ECB, June 2018)
- Development of Secondary Markets for NPLs and distressed assets and protection of secured creditors from borrowers’ default: the European Commission’s Consultation Document of July 2017(EFMLG meeting, Frankfurt am Main, ECB, November 2017)
