April 15, 2020 | Blog post by Nicolas Véron, with prior publication by PIIE and Bruegel. The new Fed rule is a material breach of Basel III, a new development as the US had hitherto been the accord’s main champion. This action undermines the global order without being ostensibly justified by narrower considerations of US national interest. The financial shock surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic has prompted the US Federal Reserve to temporarily loosen an important capital-to-asset ratio requirement for American banks....

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April 8, 2020 | Today, the Commission is launching ESCALAR, a new investment approach, developed together with the European Investment Fund (EIF), that will support venture capital and growth financing for promising companies, enabling them to scale up in Europe and help reinforce Europe’s economic and technological sovereignty. It will provide up to €300 million aiming to increase the investment capacity of venture capital and private equity funds, triggering investments of up to €1.2 billion, or four times the original...

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April 16, 2020 |  Today’s meeting takes place against the backdrop of a global public health challenge that is having profound consequences, particularly here in Europe. Over just a few weeks, we have seen the ever-increasing impact of this virus on our citizens, our public services and our economies. I’m sure we all join in expressing our sympathies to the bereaved, our best wishes to those who are ill and our gratitude to all those who are engaged in tackling this virus,...

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April 15, 2020 Tax and fiscal policy responses are playing a critical role in limiting the hardship caused by containment measures, and should continue to do so as governments seek to support households and businesses, protect employment and pursue economic recovery from the global pandemic, according to new OECD analysis. Tax and Fiscal Policy in Response to the Coronavirus Crisis, a report requested of the OECD by the Saudi G20 Presidency, was presented today during a virtual meeting of G20 Finance...

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April 16, 2020 The Federal Reserve on Thursday announced that its Paycheck Protection Program Liquidity Facility is fully operational and available to provide liquidity to eligible financial institutions, which will help support small businesses. The Small Business Administration's Paycheck Protection Program, or PPP, guarantees loans extended by qualified lenders to small businesses so that those businesses can keep workers employed. The Federal Reserve's facility will support the effectiveness of the PPP by extending credit to financial institutions that make PPP loans,...

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April 15, 2020 Today, the Commission, in cooperation with the President of the European Council, has put forward a European roadmap to phase-out the containment measures due to the coronavirus outbreak. While we are still in firefighting mode, the necessary extraordinary measures taken by Member States and the EU are working. They have slowed down the spread of the virus and saved thousands of lives. However, these measures and the corresponding uncertainty come at a dramatic cost to people, society and the economy,...

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April 14, 2020 The COVID-19 pandemic has caused an unprecedented human and health crisis. The measures necessary to contain the virus have triggered an economic downturn. At this point, there is great uncertainty about its severity and length. The latest Global Financial Stability Report shows that the financial system has already felt a dramatic impact, and a further intensification of the crisis could affect global financial stability. Since the pandemic’s outbreak, prices of risk assets have fallen sharply. At the worst point of the recent...

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April 8, 2020 | Today, the European Union is launching its “Team Europe” package to support partner countries in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic and its consequences. The objective of the “Team Europe” approach is to combine resources from the EU, its Member States, and financial institutions, in particular the European Investment Bank and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. The European Commission and the European Investment Bank have already pledged financial support amounting to more than €15.6 billion from existing programmes....

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April 9, 2020 | The Federal Reserve on Thursday took additional actions to provide up to $2.3 trillion in loans to support the economy. This funding will assist households and employers of all sizes and bolster the ability of state and local governments to deliver critical services during the coronavirus pandemic. "Our country's highest priority must be to address this public health crisis, providing care for the ill and limiting the further spread of the virus," said Federal Reserve Board Chair...

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