María Teresa Fernández Labardini

María Teresa Fernández Labardini has more than 33 years of professional experience in the financial sector. She joined White & Case in 2011 and her practice focuses primarily on the financial sector and regulatory and corporate issues, in aspects involved with financial institutions.

María Teresa has extensive experience in advising credit institutions, stock brokers, financial groups, SOFOMES, Pension Funds, REIT’s, fintech companies, and unregulated trading companies in general, to attend legal and regulatory inquiries, requests for authorizations and notices to financial authorities (among others: investment requests, mergers, corporate restructurings and advice regarding corporate governance challenges and good practices in their day-to-day affairs, outsourcing processes, electronic-digital banking, payment systems, operation of entities participating in the stock market, operation of clearing houses and credit bureaus, and transactions under the Mexican Fintech Law).

Furthermore, María Teresa has developed a solid practice in the legal support for: obtaining authorizations for the incorporation and operation of new banks and financial technology institutions ("Fintech"), as well as for mergers and acquisitions of various financial institutions; loan restructuring and portfolio acquisitions; regulatory legal audits, as well as addressing requirements from authorities in sanction proceedings; and the right to be heard by the authorities in such proceedings; and processes of revocation of authorizations, and other matters related to the reorganization, dissolution and liquidation of financial institutions and commercial companies, in general.

During her professional tenure, María Teresa has participated and provided legal advise in the resolution of several issues involving matters of constitutional, commercial, corporate and procedural law, such as restructurings and negotiations of loans, M&A transactions, corporate actions taken by corporate bodies of private companies, including financial institutions and legal proceedings known as "amparos" against laws, constitutional disputes and appeals against administrative decisions.

Furthermore, given her broad experience, she provides advice to safeguard the performance of public institutions and public servants in various transactions in compliance with the applicable legal framework.

Before joining White & Case in 2011, María Teresa Fernández Labardini served in the public sector starting in 1989, where she held senior positions, among others, at Banco de Mexico, as Instrumentation Manager of Legal Operations of Central Banking and Legal Manager of Bank Support Funds and Securities Markets; at the National Banking and Securities Commission, as the General Technical Director, the Secretary of the Board of Governors and Vice President of Regulatory Affairs; and until March 2011 she was the Executive Secretary-Managing Director at the Institute for the Protection of Bank Savings ("IPAB").

Due to her various positions in the public sector, she participated in several Federal Public Administration agencies, as well as working groups composed by financial authorities.

Also, she has participated in several negotiations with the National Congress and with financial authorities in connection with Bills to amend financial laws presented by the Executive Branch and, in general, during the lawmaking process.

Due to her experience in financial matters, María Teresa has organized conferences and talks on legal, economic, financial and monetary issues, in different universities, as well as in forums of the financial economic guild.

Maria Teresa has been independent board member in public and private companies. To date she is Deputy Member of the Board of the Bolsa Institucional de Valores ("BIVA"), and member of the Regulatory Committee. She is also an independent Board Member on the Technical Committee of a stock market issuer, and a member of the Practice Committee.