John's research focuses on banking (in Europe, Japan and the United States) and credit unions (in UK, Ireland and the United States). He has published over 90 journal articles in outlets including Journal of Money Credit & Banking; Journal of International Economics; Journal of Corporate Finance; Journal of the Royal Statistical Society; Journal of Economic Geography; European Journal of Operational Research;  British Journal of Management; Economic Inquiry; Journal of Banking & Finance; Journal of Financial Stability; Financial Markets, Institutions and Instruments; Cambridge Journal of Economics; International Journal of Industrial Organization; Regional Studies and Social Science & Medicine.

‌John is the author/co-author of numerous books. These include: European Banking: Efficiency, Technology and Growth; Industrial Organisation: An Analysis of Competitive Markets; The Economics of Business Strategy; Industrial Organization: Competition Strategy and Policy (five editions); and Banking: A Very Short Introduction. John edited a five volume Routledge Major Works in Banking. He co-edited the first, second and third editions of the Oxford Handbook of Banking (with Allen Berger and Phil Molyneux). John also coedited the Handbook of Post Crisis Financial Modelling (with Emmanuel Haven, Phil Molyneux, Sergei Fedotov and Meryem Duygun) and Financial Literacy and Responsible Finance in the FinTech Era (with George Panos and Chris Adock).

John is happy to consider PhD applications from high calibre candidates in the areas of empirical banking and financial cooperatives.

Bank Taxation, SME finance, Bank Dividend Policy; Bank Mortgage Lending, strategy of US credit unions

BA (Hons); M.Phil; PhD; FAcSS

John is Professor of Banking & Finance and Head of the Department of Finance at the Business School, University of St Andrews. He is also the Director of the Centre for Responsible Banking & Finance. He is also a Member of Scientific Advisory Board of Chartered Association of Business Schools Academic Journal Guide. Previously, he was Treasurer and General Secretary of the British Accounting and Finance Association during the period 2009-2011, and the founding Chair of the British Accounting and Finance Association Financial Markets and Institutions Special Interest Group over the period 2007-2018. John serves as  Editor to Journal of Business Finance and Accounting and Associate Editor to the Journal of Money Credit and Banking, Journal of Financial Stability, British Accounting Review, European Journal of Finance and Finance Research Letters. He also serves on the editorial board of a number of journals including the Journal of Financial Economic Policy and the Journal of Financial Regulation and Compliance. He has guest edited 10 special issues for various journals including: Journal of Corporate Finance; Journal of Banking & Finance, Journal of Economic Behaviour & Organization, European Journal of Finance, Public Money & Management and the British Accounting Review.

In the period June 2011 to April 2012, John served as a full member of a Commission on Credit Unions established by the Irish Government. The Commission delivered interim and final reports to the Minister for Finance in September 2011 and April 2012 respectively. In 2018, John delivered evidence on the impact of Brexit on UK small and medium-sized enterprises to the House of Lords EU Internal Markets Committee. In 2020, John was appointed as a full panel member to the 2021 Research Evaluation Framework (REF) Sub-panel 17: Business and Management Studies. n 2024-2025, he served on the 2025 REF People, Culture and Environment (PCE) pilot panel for Business and Management Studies. In September 2025, he was appointed as a full member of the 2029 Research Evaluation Framework (REF) Sub-panel 17: Business and Management Studies. 

In 2025, he was appointed as a Fellow of the Academy of Social Science (FAcSS). John has held visiting positions at the Helsinki School of Economics, University of Limoges and University College Dublin.

Industrial Organisation, Banking, Credit Unions and the Economics of Sport.

Banking; credit unions; industrial organisation

• MN4223 International Banking