Eastern Mediterranean University (EMU) hosted the 9th International Conference on Banking and Finance Perspectives (ICBFP'2026) on 22-23 October 2026, organised by the Department of Banking and Finance within the Faculty of Business and Economics. Sponsored by the Turkish Cypriot Cooperative Central Bank and held under the main theme "Digital Finance: Cryptocurrencies, Financial Technologies and Central Bank Digital Currencies", the event brought together experts from 17 countries. A total of 50 papers were presented across 10 sessions.
The conference opened at 10:00 on Thursday, 22 October, in the EMU Senate Room. Co-chaired by Prof. Dr. Nesrin Özataç and Assoc. Prof. Dr. Nigar Taşpınar, the opening ceremony was attended by MP Teberrüken Uluçay, State Planning Organisation Undersecretary Mehmet Ağa, EMU Rector Prof. Dr. Hasan Kılıç, Vice Rector Prof. Dr. Osman Karatepe, Secretary General Derviş Ekşici and Faculty Dean Prof. Dr. Mustafa Besim, along with academics and representatives of the banking, trade, insurance and industrial sectors.
Speaking at the opening, Dean Mustafa Besim said the conference, now in its ninth edition, had become a tradition for the department and allowed developments in banking and finance to be followed closely from an academic perspective. He noted that digital finance, one of the fastest-changing areas of the sector, was chosen as this year's theme, and that the 50 papers fell under four headings: digital finance, fintech, crypto assets and artificial intelligence; banking, financial stability and monetary policy; capital markets, portfolio management and behavioural finance; and sustainable finance, climate risk and energy economics. Besim added that the faculty educates around 1,850 students in four departments and 41 programmes, and thanked the Cooperative Central Bank for its support.
Rector Hasan Kılıç highlighted the importance of trust, security, transparency and accountability for the future of digital finance. Noting that digitalisation is transforming many areas from payment habits to access to financial services, he said the opportunities and risks of cryptocurrencies, fintech and central bank digital currencies should be assessed on the basis of scientific evidence. Kılıç stressed that universities bear significant responsibility in this transformation and said EMU aims to expand international academic cooperation, strengthen knowledge exchange between academia and the financial sector, and equip students with the skills the future demands.
Following the speeches, Kılıç presented plaques to keynote speakers Prof. Dr. Erhan Aslanoğlu and Prof. Dr. Anis Samet. Aslanoğlu delivered his keynote, "Banking and Finance in an Age of Global Uncertainty", in the Senate Room on the first day. Samet, of the American University of Sharjah, gave his talk, "How Banks Respond to Changing Interest Rates: New Evidence and Emerging Challenges", on Friday, 23 October, in the faculty's BEA-5 hall. Alongside in-person sessions, online sessions were also held via Microsoft Teams.
The papers presented will be published, following a separate peer-review process, in the Springer Proceedings in Business and Economics series, indexed by Scopus and Web of Science.
