On June 29, the European Commission (EC) announced it will extend support to SMEs that were previously ineligible for state aid and amended recapitalization measures to incentivize private investor participation. Continue reading “European Commission Expands Eligibility for SME Support and Increases Incentives for Private Recapitalization”

On March 18, the ECB unveiled a temporary program to purchase up to €750 billion in public and private-sector securities until the “crisis phase” of the COVID-19 crisis is over, but at least until the end of 2020. The Pandemic Emergency Purchase Programme (PEPP) is an expansion of the ECB’s Asset Purchase Programme (APP), a package of asset-purchase measures that the ECB initiated in 2014 to support monetary policy. The PEPP, like the earlier APP, includes programs to buy sovereign debt, covered bonds, asset-backed securities , corporate bonds, and commercial paper. As with the APP, the ECB will make available for lending any securities that it purchases under the PEPP. Continue reading “Update on ECB's Pandemic Emergency Purchase Programme”

The European Commission (EC) is still working out the details of a €37 billion plan and further extension of this initiative to support member states using existing funds to provide emergency support for distressed member states. EU leadership has also agreed in principle to a much larger recovery fund that would provide approximately €1 trillion. Continue reading “EU Programs in Support of Member Countries”

The International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank, and other multinational organizations have announced plans to make hundreds of billions of dollars available to emerging markets in response to the COVID-19 crisis. But their own experts have said these funds will probably be insufficient, and they have collectively released only a small fraction of that amount so far. Continue reading “Multinational Organizations’ Efforts to Assist Countries through COVID-19 crisis”