Fatma Ozkul has been a Lecturer at Marmara University Since 2012 and specializes in Blockchain, Digital Assets, Finance, and Auditing.
The presidency of Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan reportedly appointed blockchain technology and crypto assets expert professor Fatma Ozkul to the monetary authority of the central bank.
Bloomberg reports that on December 22, a decree nominating Ozkul was issued. Since 2012, she has held the position of lecturer at Marmara University in Istanbul, specializing in accounting, finance, and auditing.
Her scholarly pursuits encompass blockchain technology and digital assets; according to her academic profile, she published a book on crypto asset accounting in 2022.
The newest member of the Monetary Policy Committee of the Turkish central bank, Ozkul, is tasked with establishing the benchmark interest rate to rein in inflation. On December 21, the Committee increased the nation’s interest rate by 2.5 percentage points, to 42.5%, subsequent to Turkey’s inflation rate surpassing 61.98% in November.
According to reports, following his victory in the May general election in Turkey, Erdogan established a novel economic coalition and appointed Hafize Gaye Erkan, a former Goldman Sachs banker, as the central bank’s governor. In 2022, the preliminary examination of the Digital Turkish Lira, the central bank’s proprietary digital currency, was effectively completed.
The nation’s economic climate has been fostering greater cryptocurrency adoption. Turkey ranked fourth globally in raw crypto transaction volumes between July 2022 and June 2023, according to a blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis report. The country recorded approximately $170 billion in activity, placing it behind the United States, India, and the United Kingdom.
Reportedly, Turkish authorities are contemplating regulations for its cryptocurrency market, emphasizing licensing and taxation, to remove the country from the Financial Action Task Force’s “grey list” in light of the increase in cryptocurrency transactions.
Anticipated licensing prerequisites for the forthcoming regulations encompass many areas, including capital adequacy standards, digital security enhancements, custody services, and reserve verifications to thwart system abuse.
