Ernest is one of the founding Partners at XReg Consulting. As our legal and regulatory policy lead, he is highly experienced in the design, development and implementation of legislative frameworks. Ernest also sits on the Financial Markets Law Committee and INATBA’s Finance Working Group, focusing on emerging issues arising from the use of cryptoassets and Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT).

While at XReg, he has honed his expertise drafting and reviewing policy proposals, consultation papers and legislation to ensure policy objectives in the cryptoasset space are met at both a global and local level. His experience has given him a deep appreciation for quality assurance and the identification and consideration of issues, particularly in connection to legal frameworks as they apply to business and innovation.

Ernest is a qualified lawyer with over 17 years of experience working in financial services regulation and a rare technical expertise. Prior to starting XReg, he was the Head of Policy at the Gibraltar Financial Services Commission (GFSC) where he led and managed the Legislative Reform Program (LRP), the single largest financial services legislation reform in the jurisdiction. He was also instrumental in the design and implementation of the DLT regime in Gibraltar and bringing DLT Providers within scope of AML/CFT legislation.

Prior to his work at the GFSC, Ernest was a financial services regulatory lawyer advising banks, investment firms and other institutions on their ongoing legal, regulatory and transactional matters, as well as working on the transposition of several EU Directives into Gibraltar law.