Diane Bugeja, a senior associate at Camilleri Preziosi, a leading Maltese corporate law firm, last week launched her book at King’s College, London.

Dr Bugeja’s book is entitled ‘Reforming Corporate Retail Investor Protection’ and has been published with Hart Publications, a leading academic publishing house targeted at the legal profession.

Speaking with whoswho.mt, Dr Bugeja said:

“The book focuses on the sale of complex investment products to corporate retail investors by drawing upon the widespread mis-selling of interest rate hedging products in the UK and beyond.

“It brings to the fore the relatively understudied field concerning the different degrees of investor protection mechanisms applicable to individual retail investors – as opposed to corporate retail investors – by taking stock of past regulatory reforms and forthcoming regulatory initiatives as well as, more importantly, the conclusions reached by the judiciary in IRHP mis-selling claims.”

She further elaborated on how the book “finds that corporate retail investors are in a more vulnerable position when compared to individual retail investors in that the former are exposed to a heightened risk of mis-selling, meaning that regulatory intervention should be targeted accordingly.”

Asked about what led her to carry out such in-depth research of the topic, Dr Bugeja replied:

“The spate of mis-selling episodes that have plagued the financial services industries in recent years and that have caused widespread detriment to investors led me to research the topic further.

“In particular, I was interested in studying further the areas in which regulatory interventions were failing investors and why, by specifically analysing the root causes of mis-selling and developing legal and regulatory recommendations to address them.”

Dr Bugeja is a PhD graduate at King’s College London and explained that she started researching the topic back in 2014 for her PhD. She spent three years completing her studies.

“Eventually I decided to develop this further by updating the research, enhancing certain aspects of my then thesis, and publish this as a book.

“I’m proud to see this finally being published and am also extremely pleased with the feedback received thus far on the book, especially the fact that it has generated a lot of interest and debate amongst the sector both locally and overseas.”

At Camilleri Preziosi, Dr Bugeja practices primarily financial services law, financial regulation and anti-money laundering regulation.

She also advises clients on the regulatory aspects of a wide range of transactions, including licensing-related matters, capital markets initiatives and on-going liaison with regulatory authorities more broadly.

Dr Bugeja has had a varied career, having worked as a senior manager at KPMG, she held the position of associate at the Enforcement and Financial Crime Division, UK Financial Conduct Authority and was also a senior manager at the Malta Financial Services Authority.