COVID-19 has caused a global collapse in activity and loss of jobs that is probably unprecedented in its scale and speed.

Small and large businesses across every country in the world have had to close their doors to customers and employees. The sharp accompanying decrease in firms’ revenues and households’ incomes will result in the first global recession since 2009. It will also present the global financial system with its largest stress event since at least the global financial crisis.

Dr Julia Giese, Bank of England, and Professor Cameron Hepburn, INET Oxford, will discuss that banks are now part of the solution, rather than part of the problem, thanks to regulatory and institutional reforms over the past decade. Heeding the lessons from the Global Financial Crisis has paid dividends. They will outline some early lessons from the COVID-19 crisis for the financial system going forward.