Programme

4th Durham-Bristol Banking Policy Forum

"From bank tellers to AI agents: Toward a new banking system"

15 October 2026

University of Bristol Business School

Programme

8.30 - 9.00

Coffee/Tea and Registration

9.00 - 9.15

Introduction to the Forum by Dennis Philip, Durham University Business School and Klaus Schaeck, University of Bristol Business School

9.15 - 10.45

Research Paper Session 1: AI and bank lending (organised by Durham University Business School and University of Bristol Business School)

9.15 - 10.00

“Artificial intelligence and relationship lending” by Leonardo Gambacorta (Bank for International Settlements), Fabiana Sabatini (Bank of Italy), and Stefano Schiaffi (Bank of Italy)

Discussant: Yushi Peng (Tilburg University)

10.00 - 10.45

“Birds of a Feather Flock Together: The coupling of Innovative Banks and Innovative Firms” by Silvia Del Prete (Bank of Italy), Stefano Schiaffi (Bank of Italy), and Giovanni Soggia (Bank of Italy)

Discussant: Clement Mazet-Sonilhac (Bocconi University)

10.45 - 11.15

Coffee Break

11.15 - 12.15

Industry Panel: “How do Banks Ride the Rise of AI?”

Moderator: Jonathan V. Beaverstock, Deputy Dean, University of Bristol Business School

Diana Kennedy, Chief Technology Officer, Natwest Group

Simone di Castri, Co-Director and Co-Founder, CambridgeSupTechLab

Trystan Davies, Group Head of Data Science, Lloyds Banking Group

Mehmet Bakkaloglu, Principal Solutions Architect, Amazon Web Services

12.15 - 13.15

Lunch Break

13.15 - 13.45

Research Paper Session 2: (organised by International Banking Research Network)

13.15 - 14.00

“Digital Rails and Bank Deposits” by Bjorn Imbierowicz (Deutsche Bundesbank) and Rui Santos Almeida (Deutsche Bundesbank)

Discussant: Valerie Laturnus (Durham University Business School)

14.00 - 14.45

“Data-driven Technologies and Local Information Advantages in Small Business Lending” by Wilbur Chen (Hong Kong University of Science and Technology), Jung Koo Kang (Harvard Business School), Aditya Mohan (Analysis Group)

Discussant: Joe Gong (Bayes Business School)

14.45 - 15.15

Coffee Break

15.15 - 16.15

Policy Panel: “AI Risk: Facing the Challenges and Finding Opportunities”

Moderator: Daniel Flatt, The Banker, Financial Times

Domhnall Cullian, Director, Central Bank of Ireland

Stefan Kerbl, Principal Supervisor, Austrian National Bank

Marine Krasovska, Head of Department, Latvijas Banka

16.15 - 16.30

Closing Remarks and Refreshments

Francesco Vallascas and Yue Xu (Durham University Business School)