A note on regulatory responses to COVID-19 pandemic: Balancing banks' solvency and contribution to recovery.

Summary We see spikes in unemployment rates and turbulence in the securities markets during the COVID-19 pandemic. Governments are responding with aggressive monetary expansions and large-scale economic relief plans. We discuss the implications on banks and the economy of prudential regulatory intervention to soften the treatment of non-performing loans and ease bank capital buffers. We apply these easing measures on a sample of Globally Systemically Important Banks (G-SIBs) and show that these banks can play a constructive role in sustaining economic growth during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, softening the treatment of non-performing loans along with easing capital buffers should not undermine banks' solvency in the recovery period. Banks should maintain usable buffer in the medium-term horizon to absorb future losses, as the effect of COVID-19 on the economy might take time to fully materialise.