Gbenga Ibikunle Headshot

Professor and Chair of Finance

Roles and Responsibilities

Director, Edinburgh Centre for Financial Innovations (https://www.ecfi.business-school.ed.ac.uk/) 

Co-Director, Centre for Purpose-Driven Innovation in Banking (in partnership with NatWest Group)

Background

Gbenga is a Professor and Chair of Finance, and as the Director of the Edinburgh Centre for Financial Innovations, he leads on strategic FinTech and Financial Services initiatives at the University of Edinburgh. He is Co-Director for the NatWest Group-funded Centre for Purpose-Driven Innovation in Banking. He was the Founding Director of both the University's PhD in Financial Technology programme and its flagship postgraduate taught FinTech programme, the MSc Finance, Technology and Policy (FTP). Gbenga is also 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; a Member of the Bank of England and HM Treasury's Central Bank Digital Currency Academic Advisory Group; and a Council Member of the of the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council on the Future of Resilient Financial Systems.

He has held the position of Visiting Professor at various times at Macquarie University in Sydney, Universidade Catolica Portuguesa, Porto and China University of Petroleum, Beijing.

Gbenga holds an MBA (with distinction) and a PhD (in Market Microstructure) from the University of East Anglia, where he also held teaching and research positions with the Norwich Business School and the Environmental & Energy Finance Group respectively. He is a graduate of Yaba College of Technology, Lagos, a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and holds a Postgraduate Certificate in Academic Practice from The University of Edinburgh.

Research Interests

Gbenga’s research interests cover the general financial economics space, with a core focus on the microstructure of financial markets. His current research examines the microstructure evolution of financial markets against the backdrop of technology and policy innovations. In addition, he investigates economic issues relating to trading in energy and environmental markets, such as the markets for crude oil and emissions financial instruments. The practical relevance of his research has led to his work being regularly discussed in leading international media outlets, such as The New York TimesThe Economist, Financial Times, Forbes, and Bloomberg, and his being commissioned to undertake research projects on behalf of financial services companies, policymakers and regulators. His commissioned reports have been published by the likes of the UK's Financial Conduct Authority and the UK Houses of Parliament's All Party Parliamentary Corporate Governance Group. He has delivered scores of invited research keynotes and seminars in private/public sector fora and at universities/research and innovation institutes around the world, including at the UK Houses of Parliament, Financial Conduct Authority, Hong Kong Monetary Authority, Zhejiang University, Cardiff University, University of Otago Dunedin, University of Reading's ICMA Centre, Victoria University Wellington, University of South Australia Adelaide and Pan African University's Lagos Business School. 

He is the author (with Andros Gregoriou) of 'Carbon Markets: Microstructure, Pricing & Policy', published in 2018 by Palgrave Macmillan, and authored or co-authored peer-reviewed research papers published in international journals in financial economics, including Journal of Financial MarketsJournal of Banking & Finance, Journal of Empirical Finance, as well as papers published in journals from other related fields, such as Journal of MarketingExpert Systems with Applications and Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications.

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Research Area