The coronavirus will affect the face and focus of development banks and commercial lenders, undermine balance sheets and credit ratings of sovereign states, and even alter how and if multilaterals fund themselves, a top development official warns.
In an interview with Euromoney, Tomoyuki Kimura, director general in charge of strategy, policy and partnerships at the Asian Development Bank (ADB), says the scale of the financial aid to be extended to member countries due to Covid-19 “will be far greater than the support they needed at the time of the Lehman shock”.
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Tomoyuki Kimura, |
Kimura describes the coronavirus as a “more complex” challenge than the global financial crisis (GFC), which he watched unfold from his office in Manila. He said commercial banks had to balance the conflicting needs of shareholders and society, and determine what comes first, profit or people.
“This crisis is likely to negatively affect the balance sheets of commercial banks and undermine their profitability,” he says.
