Julien Sad

I am a senior associate in our Finance & Financial Regulation group and a member of the firm's international payments team.

Building on years of experience as a banking lawyer, in both private practice and in-house for a global investment bank, I advise various stakeholders in the payment ecosystem, such as payment schemes, payments services providers (including issuers, acquirers, TPPs), processors/gateways, as well as merchants (including e-commerce platforms). I am qualified to provide legal advice under EU and Belgian law, but I also regularly assist clients with their financial regulatory issues around the globe by working closely with our dedicated network of lawyers.

My practice area includes a wide range of payment-related regulatory topics, essentially the second Payment Services Directive (PSD2), 'level-2' documents under PSD2 such as the Regulatory Technical Standards (RTS), the Payment Account Directive (PAD), the EU Interchange Fee Regulation (IFR), the EU Cross-Border Regulation (CBPR), the EU SEPA Regulation (SEPA). My expertise also extends to credits, electronic money, cryptos and anti-money laundering legislations.

I frequently speak and publish on these topics, but more particularly I have authored chapters on payments in two Belgian law reference books, namely the "Traité pratique de droit commercial" and the "Répertoire pratique de droit belge".

Before joining Bird & Bird, I worked for an international and a top-notch boutique law firm, where I gained substantial contentious and non-contentious experience in the area of banking and finance law. From a regulatory perspective, I have advised various clients on a number of payments-related topics and assisted them with the launch of new products in the market, such as electronic wallets and virtual accounts. I have also gained experience in OTC derivative transactions, such as currency and interest rate swaps, options, as well as securities lending and repurchase transactions, in connection with various master agreements (such as ISDA, GMRA, GMSLA, or EMA). As part of my litigation experience, I represented multiple Belgian banks in civil procedures on topics ranging from payment services (for example, unauthorised/fraudulent transactions, antitrust claim in the payment card market) to derivatives, mainly in the form of interest rate swaps. I also helped clients with litigation matters relating to lending, investment services, portfolio management and security interests, including enforcement.