A Call to action: The Covid-19 crisis and the future of banking

The submission deadline is now extended till October 15, 2020.

More than a decade after the Global Financial Crisis that rocked the banking industry around the world, another crisis is threatening to do much worse. The Global Pandemic caused by the novel coronavirus Covid-19 has already caused significant economic damage and brought about much more significant government and central bank stimulus programs than the Global Financial Crisis. The economic and health impacts of this crisis are already devastating, with the long-run consequences yet to be determined.

Unlike the Global Financial Crisis, the Covid-19 crisis was not caused by problems in the banking industry or capital markets, yet the impact of this unprecedented set of aggressive government and central bank programs to counter the crisis represents an unprecedented opportunity to learn what works and does not work in the banking sector.

Because of this unparalleled opportunity for a quasi-natural experiment, we’re announcing a special issue of the Journal of Banking and Finance: The Way Forward for Banks during the Covid-19 Crisis and Beyond: Government and Central Bank Responses, Threats to the Global Banking Industry. 

We strongly encourage theoretical and empirical research on these issues to gain a better understanding of the impacts and implications of the Covid-19 crisis and the measures taken to deal with it on Banks and Capital Markets. Also of interest are the implications of the crisis on more conventional banking issues such as:

• Globalization and anti-globalization trends
• Competition between banks and shadow banks
• FinTech firms and technological change
• Low and negative interest rates
• Prudential regulation
• Bailouts of nonfinancial firms through government and central bank loans and bond purchases
• Quantitative easing
• Other critical issues that will shape the future of the banking industry around the world in the years to come.

The deadline for submission of papers was originally on 31st August, 2020, but it is now extended to October 15, 2020.

This special issue is edited jointly with the Asian Development Bank and the 33rd Australasian Finance Banking Conference, which will take place in Sydney, Australia on December 15–17, 2020.

The Guest Editors will initially review the papers and decide which ones will proceed to be reviewed by two anonymous referees each. The General Editors of the Journal have oversight over the final set of papers accepted for publication.

Authors of the selected papers will hear the editorial outcomes of the first round of the refereeing process from the Journal of Banking and Finance’s Office prior to the actual date of the Conference on 15 December, 2020, regardless of whether they have also submitted their papers to this conference. There will be a few virtual sessions during the Conference in which the authors will present their papers regardless of whether they plan to attend the conference. The intention is to finalize the refereeing process by mid-2021, and make this special issue ready for publication soon thereafter. Papers that need more time for revision will be published in the regular issues of the JBF. Specific instructions to the prospective authors may be found on the website of the 33rd Australasian Finance and Banking Conference.

 Guest Editors:

Allen N. Berger, University of South Carolina

Asli Demirgüç-Kunt, World Bank

Fariborz Moshirian, New South Wales University

Anthony Saunders, New York University