Gbenga Ibikunle

Professor and Chair of Finance at University of Edinburgh

Speaker

Gbenga is Professor and Chair of Finance at the University of Edinburgh, and as the Director of the Edinburgh Centre for Financial Innovations, he leads on strategic FinTech and Financial Services initiatives at the University. He developed and established both the University's flagship PhD and Master’s programmes in Financial Technology as founding director. He is also Co-Director of the NatWest Group-funded Centre for Purpose-Driven Innovation in Banking, the Deputy Scientific Director at the Fondazione European Capital Markets Cooperative Research Centre in Pescara, Italy, a Fellow at the RoZetta Institute (formerly Capital Markets CRC) in Sydney, Australia, and a Council Member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council on the Future of Resilient Financial Systems (2023-2024 term). Gbenga is a financial economist with a core research focus on the microstructure of financial instruments and markets. His current research situates at the intersection of the economics of financial markets and data science, with applications to practice and policy. The practical relevance of his research has led to his papers being discussed in leading international media outlets, such as The New York Times, The Economist, Financial Times, Forbes, and Bloomberg, and his being commissioned to undertake research projects on behalf of financial services companies, policymakers/government departments/ministries, and regulators. His commissioned reports have been published by entities, such as the UK's Financial Conduct Authority and the UK Houses of Parliament's All Party Parliamentary Corporate Governance Group. His research has also been published in leading international academic journals, including Journal of Financial Markets, Journal of Banking & Finance, Journal of Marketing, Journal of Empirical Finance, British Accounting Review, The European Journal of Finance, and Expert Systems with Applications.