Dr. Ozan Özerk

Founder, European Merchant Bank (EMBank)

Dr. Ozan Özerk  is the founder of European Merchant Bank (EMBank), an ECB-licensed bank headquartered in Lithuania, established to provide accessible banking and financial infrastructure to fintechs, SMEs, and entrepreneurs across Europe.

Licensed by the European Central Bank in December 2018, EMBank operates under one of the most rigorous regulatory frameworks in the European Union.

Before founding EMBank, Özerk trained as a physician at the University of Oslo and served as a Ranger in the Norwegian Armed Forces, followed by service in the Norwegian Home Guard. He worked as an emergency room doctor in Norway until 2015 — a background that informs his approach to institutional responsibility and precision in high-stakes environments.

His entrepreneurial track record precedes his fintech career. In 2005 he co-founded Biip.no, Norway’s largest social network, acquired by Egmont and Nettavisen in 2008 for over 100 million NOK. He subsequently worked as a practising physician before transitioning to fintech in 2015.

Alongside EMBank, Özerk founded OpenPayd — a global Banking-as-a-Service and embedded finance platform processing over $220 billion annually across 30+ jurisdictions — giving him direct operational experience across both licensed banking and large-scale payment infrastructure.

Özerk has been a Forbes Finance Council member since 2021. He engages regularly with regulators including the FCA, ECB, and SEC on the future of digital assets, embedded finance, and cross-border payment infrastructure.

In 2025, he was named “Enterprise Entrepreneur” at the Enterprise Awards Dinner, held at Drapers’ Hall in London — an annual ceremony honouring founders of fast-growing technology companies and one of the most recognised events of its kind in the UK tech industry.