The main summit programme of Istanbul Fintech Week 2026, supported by Bex Digital Wallet, has begun. The opening address was delivered by Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey (TCMB) Deputy Governor Prof. Dr. Hatice Karahan. Nobel Prize-winning economist Prof. Dr. Daron Acemoğlu is set to take the main stage today, October 6. The event, which opened on October 5 with the Sustainable Finance Summit, will cover payments, artificial intelligence, autonomous finance, digital banking, and tokenization.
Istanbul Fintech Week (IFW) 2026, supported by Bex Digital Wallet, is bringing together global and local leaders of the financial technology ecosystem at Hilton Istanbul Maslak from October 5 to 7. Under the theme “Smart, Embedded and Tokenized,” the Sustainable Finance Summit on October 5 is followed by the Payments, AI in Finance, Digital Banking, and Digital Assets summits on October 6 and 7.
AI and secure settlement in focus
In her opening address, TCMB Deputy Governor Prof. Dr. Hatice Karahan said: “For many years, one of the core objectives in payments was to make them faster and more secure. While these goals remain important, there is a dimension that is increasingly being added to them: making payments smarter. We can already see this development taking shape around instant payment infrastructures. Smart payments are also evolving in other ways — payments are increasingly being executed based on pre-defined conditions, interacting with digital identities and assets, and becoming part of broader automated processes.”
Karahan continued: “The next development in payments is the use of artificial intelligence, which is bringing the historical journey of payments toward agent-based payments. AI is creating opportunities to coordinate processes connected to payments. At the same time, agent-based payments bring their own challenges. For central banks, therefore, the future of payments is not simply a matter of adopting new technologies. It also requires understanding how higher levels of automation interact with the underlying monetary structure and payment infrastructure, and ensuring that innovation develops alongside clearly defined mandates and trusted settlement.”
International regulatory perspectives on the future of payments
Representatives of the Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey, the Bank of Slovenia, and the National Bank of Georgia will come together in a panel examining the interconnection of instant payment systems. The event creates space for cross-border dialogue and cooperation while bringing together fintech development and the regulatory agenda.
Five summits on the transformation of finance
The programme consists of the Sustainable Finance, Payments, AI in Finance, Digital Banking, and Digital Assets summits, with closed roundtable sessions accompanying the main stage sessions. Invest in Türkiye and the Payment and Electronic Money Institutions Association of Turkey (TÖDEB) are among the event’s strategic partners. Sponsors include GarantiBBVA Payment Systems, Akbank LAB, TROY — the national payment brand of the Interbank Card Center (BKM) — Türkiye İş Bankası, Blue Python, Collinson, and Ripple.
At the Payments Summit, BKM General Manager Ozan Deniz will deliver a keynote titled “Beyond Cash: Shaping the Future of Payments.” GarantiBBVA Payment Systems General Manager Kerem Orbay will participate in a conversation on the embedding of payments into commerce: “Orchestration and Embedded Payments: The Future of Commerce.”
Is AI a reinvention or a disruption for banking? This question will be explored on October 7 at the Digital Banking Summit in the panel “The Intelligent Bank: Reinvention or Disruption?” featuring Akbank Deputy General Manager of Digital Solutions and Strategy Şebnem Dağ Güven and bunq Head of Global Operations Hüseyin Demirhisar. Ripple’s General Manager for Middle East and Africa, Reece Merrick, will discuss the new infrastructures of cross-border finance on the same day in the panel “Beyond Borders: Building the New Infrastructure of Global Finance.”
Remitly CEO Sebastian J. Gunningham will take part on October 6 in the conversation “The Intelligent Money Movement: How AI Is Rewiring Global Payments.” Cognitive Finance Group CEO Clara Durodié will address AI-powered fraud prevention in a keynote session. BRIDGE API CEO Anna Maj will speak on October 7 on the shift toward modular architectures in banking in “Redefining the Bank: The Rise of Composable Banking and Open Architectures.”
Since 2019, Istanbul Fintech Week has brought together more than 17,000 participants from over 60 countries, with more than 630 speakers having taken the stage to date. The “Pioneers of Digital Finance 2026” awards programme, organised in collaboration with KPMG Turkey and Istanbul Fintech Week, is also part of this year’s event, with the awards ceremony taking place on October 6.
