EBI proudly announces the publication of its second eBook entitled: “Financial Stability amidst the Pandemic Crisis: On Top of the Wave“, co-edited by Professor Christos Gortsos, President of the Academic Board, and Professor Georg Ringe, Fellow Academic Member of EBI.

When the first edition of this EBI e-book was published over a year ago (‘Pandemic Crisis and Financial Stability‘), the world seemed to be on the brink of collapse. Our new publication reflects on how national and EU institutions and agencies have orchestrated their efforts towards establishing an appropriate framework for ensuring financial stability, to primarily support those parts of the population and of the businesses most severely affected by the pandemic and to contain its negative effects. These steps included a combination of fiscal policy, monetary policy, and financial policy measures. New instruments and rescue funds were introduced, flexibility in the application of several existing rules has been applied to the extent necessary and feasible, and some ‘quick-fix’ legislative actions supplemented the pandemic crisis management toolbox.

This new volume contains 17 articles, divided into 5 sections. The first section of the book provides a general overview. It starts with a contribution discussing whether the end of secular stagnation might be the silver lining of Covid (Charles Wyplosz) and is followed by a part exploring when and how Covid support measures for the banking system should be unwound (Rainer Haselmann and Tobias Tröger). The final two contributions in this section are an analysis reflecting on the lessons learned from the pandemic for European finance, especially in relation to sustainability and digitalisation (Wolf-Georg Ringe) and a chapter on EU financial regulation in times of instability (Danny Busch).

The second section focuses on non-performing loans (NPLs), a new wave of which is emerging due to the pandemic on businesses and households. It includes an analysis of new risks and policies in relation to NPLs (Emilios Avgouleas et al.), a chapter on banking supervision in times of uncertainty (Concetta Brescia Morra) as well as a contribution on NPLs and the Directive on preventive corporate restructuring (Juana Pulgar Ezquerra and Ignacio Signes de Mesa).

The third section addresses the role of the ECB during the pandemic. The ECB’s response to the Covid-19 crisis and its role in the green recovery are evaluated (Seraina Grünewald), the implementation of the single monetary policy since the outbreak of the pandemic crisis and its impact on financial stability are analysed (Christos Gortsos) and the Next Generation EU agenda of the ECB is introduced and discussed (Carlos Bosque, David Ramos Muñoz and Marco Lamandini).

The fourth section then deals with banking regulation during the crisis. It starts with a discussion on the releasability of combined buffer requirements after the Covid-19 pandemic (Bart Joosen) and is followed by contributions on the restriction for bank capital remunerations in the pandemic (Antonella Sciarrone Alibrandi and Claudio Frigeni), cultural reforms in Irish banks (Blanaid Clarke), the mothballing of the economy and its effects on banks (Matthias Lehmann) and fiscal policies preserving the financial stability and the future of the banking sector in a post-COVID reformed EU (Luis Morais).

The final section concludes with considerations on the regulation of capital markets. It deals with emergency measures for equity trading (Luca Enriques and Marco Pagano) and fixing the core of EU capital markets legislation during the pandemic (Filippo Annunziata and Michele Siri).

This publication also supports a more optimistic approach on the further evolution of the pandemic. The key assumption of the new book is that the various infection waves of the crisis will not be followed by another severe one, as are we gradually reaching a much-desired point of ‘new normality’. And yet, as the book title suggests, we are ‘on top of the wave’ of the crisis as a whole.

We are grateful to all authors, most of them members of the Academic Board of the European Banking Institute, who participated in this academic work with their valuable contributions.

The EBI is also very thankful for the forewords written by Edouard Fernandez-Bollo (Member of the Supervisory Board of the Single Supervisory Mechanism), François-Louis Michaud (Deputy Director General at the ECB), Rolf Strauch (Chief Economist and Management Board Member of the ESM and the EFSF) and Thomas Gstädtner (President of the Supervisory Board of the EBI).

The eBook can also be accessed free of charge here.