Professor Steven Ongena on Banking and Career in Academia
Professor Steven Ongena (University of Zurich) visited the GSF in September 2025 and taught an intensive doctoral course on “Empirical Banking”. The course attracted 20 doctoral students from Finland and the Nordics to learn about the economics and econometrics of banking.
We spoke to Steven and asked about his path in academia, his research on banking, and advice he would give PhD students in finance.
1. Tell us how you became an academic? Was there an alternative career in your mind or was it clear from day one that you would go for a PhD and become a professor one day? What inspires you in your work as a professor?
It was not by design nor planned for sure. I wasn’t a star student and did not have any clear career plans during my undergraduate studies. It was not until I was doing a masters in economics in Canada that I started to think these questions more seriously. Academic career after a PhD was a natural choice and my first job as an assistant professor at BI Norwegian Business School followed by years in Tilburg convinced me that I am on the right track.
I am still excited about research, exploring and understanding new things. As a professor it is very rewarding to see your own PhD students getting excited and inspired about research. It is enjoyable to supervise PhD students and see them grow as researchers.
2. While visiting us you taught an intensive PhD course on “Empirical Banking”. Even though banks and banking have been there for ever, financial sector has been and is undergoing continuous changes due to financial innovations, Fintech, climate change, regulation, appearance of non-bank (private debt markets) and so on. How do you see the future of banking? Where do we go? What is your take on regulation in financial sector? For financial stability reasons banking regulation (or supervision) is needed but does it potentially have any harmful effects?
“Reports about the death of traditional banking are greatly exaggerated”, a common theme in banking and part of the title for example of a Boyd/Gertler piece in the nineties remains relevant today. Of course, there are many new features in financial sector such as fintech, cryptos and maybe a central bank digital currency one day, still retail banks are there and their fundamental role remains. Of course, the mode and shape of banking is slightly different than before. It is also good to notice that the banking sector as a whole did quite well during a recent system-wide ”test” due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The banking system turned out to be resilient. Of course, one has to be careful when implementing new regulations to avoid unintended consequences that they may have.
3. Your research focus has been in banking for most of your career. What made you to choose banking in the first place? Tell us about your ongoing research. What are you working on at the moment?
It is clear that in order to succeed one needs to specialize. During my PhD studies and the early part of my career, I was interested in bank-firm relationships. Collaboration with David Smith at BI made me to push these topics further in banking and my time in Tilburg established me as a banking researcher. The years I was in Tilburg were important and productive. At that time there were several wonderful scholars who shared interests in banking and financial institutions more generally. Some of the people I started to collaborate then, like Hans Degryse, I still work with.
Of course, being more seasoned researcher today, I have more time and more degrees of freedom to pick basically any research topic that interests me. I want to keep my mind open and look at new topics and research questions in detail when I find them interesting. At the moment I am for example very interested in inequality and geopolitical risks.
4. What are your thoughts on the use of AI in economics and financial research? Do you use AI in your own research?
It is clear that AI is here to stay, and it will reshape research in the future and maybe in a way that we do not yet understand. Our department in Zurich is very encouraging and supports the faculty in using AI by offering great infrastructure. Personally, I use AI regularly in writing and editing my research. I find it to be of great assistance for a non-native English speaker. Sometimes, I also ask advice and comments from ChatGPT in addition to my colleagues.
5. What would be your advice for our PhD students? How to make the most out of their time in the PhD program? How one should choose a topic for the dissertation?
During PhD studies you need to invest in learning theory and methods. It is a privilege that one has time to do it properly then. It pays off. Later it may be difficult to have enough time for it. Finding a good research topic is never easy and there is no one single way to proceed. It is a good sign that after reading a paper or seeing a seminar presentation, you become excited and interested and have a feeling that you can do it better. Being inspired and genuinely interested in your research topic is utmost important and helpful as you need to work with it over many years.
About Professor Steven Ongena
Steven Ongena is a professor of banking in the Department of Finance at the University of Zurich, a senior chair at the Swiss Finance Institute, a research professor at KU Leuven, a research professor at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology NTNU Business School, and a research fellow in financial economics of CEPR. He is also a research professor at the Deutsche Bundesbank, a research visitor at Norges Bank, a fellow of CFS, the chair of the Research Advisory Council of SAFE, and a panel member of the European Research Council.
He is publishing in accounting, economics, finance, law, management, and public governance journals. He co-authored, with Hans Degryse and Moshe Kim, the graduate textbook entitled Microeconometrics of Banking: Methods, Applications and Results published by Oxford University Press.
Pictures from University of Zurich and Professor Steven Ongena’s personal website.