“Investing in knowledge is knowing how to invest”: a phrase that encapsulates the professional and human essence of Francesco Caputo Nassetti, a manager with international experience who makes knowledge and experience his main values.
Francesco Caputo Nassetti was born in Ferrara on 15 May 1958. After classical studies, in 1976 he enrolled in the Law degree course at the University of Ferrara, where he graduated with honours in 1980. He registered with the Ferrara Bar in 1984.
In January 1981, he began his career at Banca Commerciale Italiana, where he followed a training course that led him, through a number of positions and different operational offices, to the top management of the bank, which he left in July 2003 as Deputy General Manager first of Banca Commerciale Italiana S.p.A. and then of Banca Intesa S.p.A. During these years he worked in 16 different cities, including London and Tokyo.
In 2003 he became General Manager of the Global Markets Italy Division of Deutsche Bank AG with responsibility for Global Markets activities in Italy. In 2006 he was appointed Senior Advisor for Eastern Europe at Deutsche Bank AG, London, with responsibility for development activities in the region and in particular for relations with governments and central banks in Eastern European countries.
From 2009 until June 2013 he was General Manager of Intermedia Holding S.p.A., Bologna, a private equity fund with €200 million of capital active in capital investments mainly in the renewable energy sector. In this context he has been Chairman or Managing Director of several companies operating in the photovoltaic sector that have built and managed 41 MW.
From January 2015 to August 2020, he was Chief Executive Officer of Swiss Merchant Corporation S.A., Lugano, a financial advisory firm specialising in extraordinary corporate transactions, as well as in advising on the search for debt capital (from banks or other sources). The company also acts as advisor to international closed-end funds specialising in the acquisition of equity stakes in unlisted companies.
Since September 2020, he has been Managing Director of Artisa Finanz AG, a Swiss financial advisory company belonging to the Artisa AG Group, a leading Swiss real estate development company.
From January to October 2016, he was a member of the Board of Directors and of the Executive Committee of Cassa di Risparmio di Cesena S.p.A., a Board that achieved the rescue of the bank with the entry of the Interbank Deposit Protection Fund through a reserved capital increase of €280 million.
Parallel to his banking activities, Caputo Nassetti cultivated his interest in law through a dense research activity that led him to academic teaching.
His research activity began in 1989 with his first publications on civil and banking law in 1990, in particular
a in the journals Diritto del commercio internazionale and Bollettino tributario di informazioni. The first book was published in 1991 entitled Brevi note sui coefficienti patrimoniali bancari, published by Bancaria Editrice.
His scientific activity was stimulated by the development of new economic phenomena and in particular of new contractual cases known by the term “derivative contracts”, which from the early nineties experienced an impetuous commercial development, remaining ignored by doctrine and jurisprudence for several years.
Francesco Caputo Nassetti is considered one of the leading Italian experts on the subject of derivative contracts: the 2013 edition of the Encyclopaedia of Law in fact sees the contribution of the lawyer for the editing of the part dedicated to this contractual case.
From 1998 to 2008 he taught Private Law at Bocconi University in Milan and from 2012 to 2020 he taught at the University of Ferrara as Professor of Banking Law. He collaborates with several law journals (including Giurisprudenza Commerciale) in the drafting of articles and comments on court decisions. He is the Sole Director of the financial consultancy company F. Caputo Nassetti Sagl, drafts expert reports on usury, financial derivatives and takes on arbitration assignments. He also had run his own business in the photovoltaic, hydroelectric and real estate sectors and in the marketing of LED technology.
In April 2017, the Alma Iura Centre for Banking and Finance Law Studies and Training awarded Caputo Nassetti the 2016 LOY Lawyer of the Year Finance Award “for the innovation of some of his proposals in the field of Non Performing Loans and for his intense arbitration activity in financial matters”.
Francesco Caputo Nassetti has four children with whom he shares his passions: reading the great classics, fencing and horse-riding, which leads him to travel often overseas, to the “wildest” America, for adventurous excursions on horseback.