Coping with the COVID-19 Crisis: Adapting to the New Reality

In April this year, we published our first bulletin dealing with how banks globally should approach the rapidly changing market conditions caused by the spread of the COVID-19 virus. As the crisis continued, we published the second edition, reflecting on the early effects that the pandemic was having on banks and updated our recommendations

Six months on from the original bulletin, it is clear that the duration of the crisis brought about by the pandemic and its ongoing effects on the operating models, strategic imperatives, and financial prosperity of banks across the world is going to be longer and deeper than many analysts predicted.

Paradoxically, against this backdrop of uncertainty and financial instability, the importance of banks and the role they play at both a local and global economic level has never been higher. Retail consumers, small and medium enterprises, and commercial entities are looking to banks for increasing levels of support and assistance, especially as government-introduced stimulus programs start to mature and expire around the globe.