Willem Pieter is a Research Fellow & Heading the Financial Markets and Institutions Unit at the Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS) in Brussels and an associate researcher at the International Research Centre on Cooperative Finance (IRCCF) of HEC Montréal. He has (co)-authored studies and coordinated projects on EU and Near East financial institutions regulation, diversity in bank ownership and business models, retail financial services and financial instruments. Moreover, he also works on small and medium-sized enterprises obstacles to growth and access to finance as well as collaborative economy and taxation. As an associate researcher of the IRCCF, Willem Pieter contributes to research on financial systems. He holds a Master in Finance, VU University, The Netherlands and Bachelor in Economics, Utrecht University, The Netherlands