Luis Ernesto Marín

Practice Areas

Financial Services Regulation

Corporate Finance

Fintech

Banking & Finance

Capital Markets

Derivatives

Insurance Law

Mergers & Acquisitions

Personal

Luis Ernesto Marín Villarán is a highly experienced financial lawyer with nearly 20 years advising financial institutions, insurance companies, fintechs and startups, and corporations across a broad range of regulatory and transactional matters. As a Partner at Ontier, he leads the Banking & Finance, Financial Regulation, Fintech and M&A practice, specializing in financial services regulation, corporate finance, derivatives and insurance law.

He has extensive experience structuring domestic and cross-border financing transactions, representing both financial institutions —as lenders or arrangers— and companies in bilateral and syndicated loans, structured finance, project finance and securities offerings across industries such as agribusiness, fishing, energy and real estate. He regularly advises clients on mergers and acquisitions, restructurings, licensing and compliance strategies, and holds significant experience in derivatives transactions.

Luis Ernesto provides regulatory guidance throughout the entire lifecycle of financial and fintech businesses —from market entry and licensing before the SBS, the BCRP and the SMV, to corporate governance, risk management, data protection and cybersecurity. He plays a key role in bridging technology and financial regulation, supporting fintech and payment companies as they navigate evolving legal frameworks.

His practice draws on an uncommon breadth of experience: over a decade in the banking & finance practice of Baker McKenzie; earlier years as in-house counsel at leading Peruvian banks (BCP and Scotiabank); and a period at Porto Legal, a technology-focused (TMT) firm where he gained hands-on exposure to technology applied to business. He went on to build his practice as a partner at Lazo Abogados and Rubio Leguía Normand before joining Ontier. This blend of global-firm training, client-side perspective and real fluency in the technology behind the sector allows him to translate regulation into business decisions, not only legal opinions, and gives him a distinctive command of the technology underpinning the fintech and payments work he advises.

Luis Ernesto holds a law degree from the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú. He is an active participant in Peru's fintech and financial services ecosystem, engaging with both private and public sector stakeholders in initiatives aimed at strengthening the country's financial and regulatory framework, and he frequently speaks at conferences and industry panels on financial regulation, fintech law and corporate finance.