Belgian government agencies directly responsible for Belgian FIs and the European Central Bank announced a series of measures to ensure that financial institutions under their direct supervision continue to finance the real economy to mitigate the economic effects of COVID-19.
Each market is dealing with COVID-19 cautiously, and the guidelines issued by different agencies follow a general theme around awareness, caution, and transparency.
Financial institutions face two categories of emergencies arising out of the coronavirus disease that could impair their functioning. The first is directly financial: a sudden drop in the value of financial assets, or loss of liquidity, whether domestically or elsewhere in the world that could lead to a national or even global financial crisis. The second is operational: the failure of the support structures that underpin the financial system.
Over recent years, the financial services industry has come to be increasingly defined by, and reliant upon, new technologies and systems. Alongside the opportunities afforded by the increased use of technology, regulators are increasingly aware of the growing threat of disruption caused by technology outages and cyber-attacks.
Whilst EU regulators have traditionally focused on capital and liquidity risks when thinking about resilience of the financial sector, the shift towards an increasingly technology-reliant financial sector, and the high-profile IT outages and cyber-attacks this creates, has increased the focus on other risks to the stability of financial services firms.