This is the fourth part of a Toronto Centre Webcast Series to help financial Supervisors and Regulators gain insights and perspectives on COVID-19 and its impact on the global financial system from supervisory experts.

Five years ago, Amira Hawamdeh took out a loan for $423 to buy buttons and yarn to make purses and sweaters, and winter blankets to sell to her neighbors.

In 2010, when the microfinance crisis broke out in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh, banks with high exposure to Micro Finance Institutions (MFIs) witnessed a devastating phase.

Growth in Sub-Saharan Africa has been significantly impacted by the ongoing coronavirus outbreak and is forecast to fall sharply from 2.4% in 2019 to -2.1 to -5.1% in 2020, the first recession in the region over the past 25 years, according to the latest Africa’s Pulse, the World Bank’s twice-yearly economic update for the region.

The disruption to the world’s economies caused by the Covid-19 pandemic is expected to wipe out 6.7% of working hours globally in the second quarter of this year – the equivalent of 195 million jobs worldwide, according to the UN’s labour body.

The amount of money migrant workers send to their home countries usually holds up well in a crisis. Not this time.

CENTRAL banks of the East African Community member countries are contemplating swift interventions in response to the coronavirus crisis amid calls on regional governments to implement significant economic stimulus packages.

In order to curtail the risk of spread of coronavirus and limit the physical interaction of citizens at bank branch level, the State Bank of Pakistan has waived all bank charges for online fund transfer services and the transactions charges on Real Time Gross Settlement System for customers.

Often bypassed by banks, the informal sector is unlikely to get much benefit from the government's Tk 727.50 billion stimulus package, fear economists.

The Central Bank of Nigeria has announced its first set of policies to cushion the negative impact the deadly Coronavirus on Nigerian businesses and economy.