Nobel Laureate Daron Acemoğlu to Speak at Istanbul Fintech Week on October 6

Turkey's first and largest global financial technology event, Istanbul Fintech Week, will be held from October 5 to 7, 2026, at the Hilton Istanbul Maslak. The event, themed "Smart, Embedded and Tokenized," will bring together bankers, fintech executives, investors, and regulators from Turkey, the Middle East, Central Asia, and Europe. The three-day program will address the transformation from artificial intelligence to payments, digital banking to sustainable finance, and digital assets, featuring key figures driving this transformation.

Daron Acemoğlu, the 2024 Nobel Prize winner in Economics and Institute Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), brings a unique perspective to the discussion with his work on the economic and social implications of technological advancement. In "Power and Progress," co-authored with Simon Johnson, he emphasizes that technology does not automatically spread prosperity; rather, it is the choices regarding who wins and who loses that determine the direction of technology.

Will artificial intelligence replace humans, or will it enhance human capabilities? Acemoğlu's framework on automation, employment, and income distribution raises a fundamental question for the finance sector, which is integrating AI into business models: Who will benefit from this transformation?

On October 6, Acemoğlu will deliver the closing keynote at the Artificial Intelligence Summit in Finance, which all participants with Istanbul Fintech Week tickets can attend. That evening, he will also meet with senior executives from the sector in a closed session at the IFW Leadership Forum. Participation in the Forum is limited to approved senior executives, separate from the general event ticket.

Invited by the Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey, the event will also host senior representatives from central banks abroad, fostering cross-border dialogue and collaboration while connecting the development of financial technologies with regulatory agendas.

Demet Zübeyiroğlu, Founding Partner of Istanbul Fintech Week, evaluates this year's focus of the event as follows:

"The future of finance will be determined not only by new technologies but also by the decisions we make today regarding these technologies. How AI will be used and who will benefit from the transformation is now a common agenda for the sector. This is why we are bringing together Prof. Daron Acemoğlu, representatives of central banks, regulators, and industry leaders on the same platform. At Istanbul Fintech Week, we will discuss not only where technology is headed but also how we want to build a financial future with these technologies."

The Transformation of Finance in Five Summits

The program consists of summits on Sustainable Finance, Payments, Artificial Intelligence in Finance, Digital Banking, and Digital Assets, accompanied by closed roundtable meetings alongside the main stage sessions.

The opening of the Payments Summit will be led by Ozan Deniz, General Manager of the Interbank Card Center (BKM). Kerem Orbay, General Manager of Garanti BBVA Payment Systems, will participate in a discussion on embedding payments into commerce. Cross-border payment infrastructures will be discussed in a panel featuring Reece Merrick, General Manager of Ripple for the Middle East and Africa. Sebastian J. Gunningham, CEO of the money transfer company Remitly, is also among the speakers of the program.

How AI is transforming risk management and cybersecurity in financial institutions will be addressed in a keynote by Clara Durodié, CEO of Cognitive Finance Group. Anna Maj, CEO of Bridge API, who will deliver the opening keynote of the Digital Banking Summit, will focus on the transition of banking to modular architectures.

Is AI a restructuring for banking, or a fundamental disruption? This question will be discussed on October 7 in the panel "The Intelligent Bank: Reinvention or Disruption?" with the participation of Şebnem Dağ Güven, Deputy General Manager of Akbank Digital Solutions and Strategy.

The growth potential of digital banking will also be among the discussion topics of the program. In a panel featuring Hüseyin Demirhisar, responsible for global operations at Bunq, one of Europe's largest digital banks, the scalability of branchless banking will be evaluated.

Since 2019, Istanbul Fintech Week has brought together over 17,000 participants from more than 60 countries, with over 630 speakers taking the stage to date. This year, the event will again bring the international dialogue of the finance world to Istanbul.

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