Robert Troy was appointed as Minister of State at the Department of Finance with special responsibility for Financial Services, Credit Unions and Insurance on 29 January 2025.

He previously served as Minister of State at the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment with special responsibility for Trade Promotion, Digital and Company Regulation Employment and Retail, from July 2020 to August 2022.

Minister Troy has represented the people of Longford- Westmeath since his election to Dáil Éireann on his first attempt in 2011, and successfully retained his seat in subsequent general elections. In opposition, Minister Troy held a number of portfolios as a Frontbench Party Spokesperson including Arts & Heritage, Children & Youth Affairs, Transport, Tourism & Sport and more recently Business, Enterprise & Innovation. He served on the Oireachtas Committee on Business, Enterprise and Innovation and Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport, and was a member of the Council of Europe, and the Selected Committee on Assisted Suicide.

Minister Robert Troy is a native of Ballynacargy, Co. Westmeath. He attended Emper National School and St Finians College, Mullingar before moving to study and work in Dublin. He completed a Postgraduate in Business Management from IPA. He worked in banking before returning to Ballynacargy to take over the family post office in 2003 and run his own business. Minister Troy first entered politics in 2004 when he was elected to Westmeath County Council where he served for seven years.

You can contact Minister of State Troy at mos@finance.gov.ie

Mary-Elizabeth McMunn was appointed Deputy Governor Financial Regulation on 1 January 2025.  She is an ex-officio Member of the Central Bank Commission and is a member of the Supervisory Board of the European Central Bank (ECB) and the General Board of the European Systemic Risk Board.

As Deputy Governor, Financial Regulation, Mary-Elizabeth is responsible for leading the regulation and supervision of the Banking and Payments, Capital and Funds and Insurance sectors.  She is also responsible for leading the Central Bank’s regulatory policy at national, European and global level.  She chairs the Central Bank’s Supervisory Risk Committee.

Prior to her appointment as Deputy Governor, Mary-Elizabeth was Director of Banking, Payments and Credit Union Supervision since 2018. She was responsible for the supervision and authorisation of banks, payment institutions and e-money institutions, and for the Registry of Credit Unions. Mary-Elizabeth joined the Central Bank in 1997 and has held senior roles in supervisory risk, banking supervision and insurance supervision, as well as having worked for a period in consulting.

Mary-Elizabeth holds an MSc in Investment & Treasury from Dublin City University, a BA in Economics from University College Dublin, a Diploma in Company Direction from the Institute of Directors and is a graduate of the Smurfit Business School.

Rita Wezenbeek is Director of the Directorate dealing with Online Platforms Economy in DG CONNECT. The Online Platforms Economy Directorate is in charge of policies applicable to online platforms and services, and specifically the supervision of the implementation and enforcement of the Digital Services Act and the Digital Markets Act (the latter jointly with DG COMP), with a focus on their economic and market-related dimensions. These two Regulations establish strong rules to ensure a safe, fair and open platform economy for European citizens and businesses, and give the Commission significant regulatory powers over gatekeepers’ and very large platforms and search engines’ activities.

Rita joined the European Commission in 2002. Before moving to DG CONNECT in December 2020, she was the head of the units dealing with Antitrust in the telecoms and electronic communications sector (2017-2020) and in the financial services and payment systems sector (2010-2017), in DG Competition.

Before joining the Commission, Rita worked sixteen years as a private lawyer, specialized in European and corporate law, in a Dutch/ Belgian law firm. She also was a Member of the Commission on European Integration, an independent advisory body on foreign policy to the Dutch government and Parliament.

Mattias Levin is the head of unit for digital finance at the European Commission’s Financial Stability, Financial Services and Capital Markets Union DG ("FISMA"). At FISMA, he has over a stint of 20 years worked on regulation related to banks, investment firms, conglomerates and financial market infrastructures. Before joining DG FISMA, he was a member of the Bureau of European Policy Advisers (BEPA), a think tank attached to the President of the European Commission. Prior to joining the Commission, Mattias was a Research Fellow at the Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS). Mattias studied at the London School of Economics and Political Science, Lund University and the Institut d’Etudes Politiques of Strasbourg.

Senior Financial Markets Executive with over 25 years’ experience working in the financial services sector for a number of international banking/asset management firms. Currently working at the Central Bank of Ireland as Head of the Payments Division, leading and developing teams of SMEs responsible for the oversight of the payments infrastructure, policy and settlements. Previously, Head of Division for Investment Banking Supervision at CBI.

Peter is Head of the Enforcement-Market Abuse and Oversight Division at the Central Bank of Ireland. Peter’s role encompasses areas including unauthorised providers (financial frauds and scams), market abuse and criminal investigations, international financial sanctions, enforcement strategy and protected disclosures. A qualified solicitor of 20 years, Peter previously worked in private practice and as an in-house lawyer up to General Counsel-level in a large financial institution, where he was ranked as one of Ireland’s top 50 In-house lawyers.

Lory Kehoe is EU Director at Aave Labs and CEO of Push Ireland, an EU-regulated digital asset firm. He is an Adjunct Associate Professor at Trinity Business School and a PhD researcher focused on blockchain entrepreneurial ecosystems and the Founder and Chair of Blockchain Ireland.

Jack Wilson, is VP Policy & Research at TrueLayer where he leads engagement with UK and EU regulators, authorities, and industry bodies. He is a Director of UK Payments Initiative and a Board member of the Open Finance Association. Jack is  a former policy adviser at the UK banking regulator the FCA. There he developed the FCA’s approach to regulating firms under the revised Payment Services Directive (PSD2) and open banking rules.

Matthew is Policy Director for Europe at Ripple, the leading provider of digital assets infrastructure to businesses. He is passionate about new technologies and believes that well-designed regulation plays a key role in supporting sustainable innovation. Matthew previously worked at the Bank of England, where he led the payments policy team working on innovations such as stablecoins and distributed ledger technology. Prior to that he held a number of senior policy roles at the Bank of England and was seconded to NatWest Bank's global treasury. He has a PhD in Finance from Bayes Business School and has authored numerous papers and blogs on financial services policy topics.  He serves on the Board of Blockchain for Europe and the advisory council of the Digital Pound Foundation.

Deniz Oran leads EMEA Payment Partnerships at Google, which involves collaborating with companies that cover all different aspects of the payments ecosystem including bringing agentic payments to the region. Building strong relationships with EMEA merchants, payments and financial services companies is core to Google’s mission to make payments simple, safe and smart for all. Deniz and her team focus on bringing local perspectives to global product developments.

Before joining Google, Deniz worked for American Express as a Director of Product Management in London where she led the successful launch of virtual payments products in Europe. During her years at Amex, she gained a rich perspective on the ecosystem through her roles in strategy and business planning. Before that, she worked in technology consulting for the financial services industry in London and New York.

Deniz grew up in Istanbul and currently lives in Zurich. She has a BA from Washington University in St. Louis and an MBA from INSEAD (Singapore & France).

Thaer Sabri is founder and CEO of the Electronic Money Association, the European trade body for the e-money industry, and managing director of payments consultancy Flawless Money. He is also senior partner of the payments specialist law firm FM Legal.

He has more than 20 years’ experience in the electronic money and innovative payments industry. He is a qualified solicitor in England & Wales and is also an engineering graduate, and postgraduate. He has represented the e-money industry in the negotiation of PSD1, EMD2, PSD2, 3MLD, 4MLD and 5MLD.

Thaer is additionally a member of the Board of the European Payments Council (EPC), a member of the EBA Banking Stakeholder Group, a member of the European Commission Payment Services Market Experts Group, a member of the UK Payments Strategy Forum, of the UK Open Banking Steering Committee, and participates in working groups of the Euro Retail Payments Board (ERPB).

Helmut is a senior expert in financial sector regulation, with extensive experience across banking, e-money, cryptoassets and digital finance.

He has contributed to major European and international regulatory initiatives, including the EU Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA), Financial Stability Board work on cryptoassets and stablecoins, the Basel Committee’s prudential framework for banks’ cryptoasset exposures, the Eurosystem PISA framework and the EU Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA).

Helmut has held senior roles in both the public and private sectors, including First Executive Director and Head of Banking Supervision at BaFin, Global Head of Regulatory Affairs at Deutsche Bank and senior adviser at Deloitte. He has also served on the Basel Committee, the ECB’s Banking Supervision Committee and the Committee of European Banking Supervisors.

Judith has over 20 years of experience in EU and national financial services regulation, and over 10 years dedicated to payments and e-money policy. As Director of Policy and Operations at the Electronic Money Association, Judith engages on a continuous basis with the EMA’s 100 or so members, building consensus amongst a diverse group of payment service providers to develop policy positions that will benefit the wider payments and e-money industry. The EMA’s members range from large e-commerce companies to the smallest start-ups, and are all all authorised e-money, payment or credit institutions established in the UK or EU. She participates in a number of industry and regulator-led EU and national working groups and steering groups focused on payments systems, fraud, payment scheme management, Payments strategy, transparency of payments, including the European Commission Payment Systems Market Expert Group, and the EPC SEPA Scheme Payment Management Board. Prior to her current role, she worked for6 years in the European Parliament on the ECON committeee, and then several years’ experience representing the insurance industry at UK and EU level.

Pia Sorvillo is the Lead Government Relations for the EU at the Electronic Money Association.

A qualified attorney, Pia spent several years in private practice prior to moving to in-house.

As public policy and government relations expert, Pia has shaped regulatory positioning and outreach strategy for prominent global providers of payment solutions, representing their interests with the EU institutions, central banks, industry bodies, national regulators and policy-makers.

Pia has worked extensively on the negotiation and adoption of major EU payments laws such as the Payment Services Directive (PSD) and its reviews, the e-money Directive, the Interchange Fees Regulation, etc.

An Italian by nationality, Pia lives in Brussels since 1996: she thrives in the multicultural environment of the capital of Europe and speaks 4 languages fluently.

Roe is a payments regulatory strategist admitted to practice law in several common law jurisdictions including California, New York and England and Wales. Roe advises payment service providers, e-money issuers and businesses on financial services regulation with a focus on payments and e-money regulation, digital operational resilience requirements and consumer protection. Prior to joining FM Legal, Roe worked as an in-house lawyer at one of the largest merchant acquirers in the US.

Giedre is a specialist payments and regulatory lawyer advising fintech, payments, e-money and e-commerce businesses on financial services regulation, with a focus on payments and e-money regulation, anti-money laundering requirements and consumer protection. She advises on regulatory authorisations, governance, outsourcing, safeguarding, payment system access, change of control applications and multi-jurisdictional product launches, and is currently supporting firms with PSD3 readiness and implementation planning.

Prior to joining FM Legal, Giedre was a regulatory manager at one of the UK’s largest prepaid card issuers, where she led cross-border compliance and regulatory change projects, including PSD2 and MLD4. She trained as a solicitor at a US law firm in London.

Bara is the Head of Communications at the Electronic Money Association, where she has worked since 2015. With a background in marketing and communications, she oversees member engagement and the EMA’s communications, events and digital channels, including its weekly regulatory newsletter. She holds degrees in multimedia and creative advertising and previously worked in a marketing agency.