Going into the Covid-19 pandemic, banks were generally much better capitalised than they were before the financial crisis a decade ago and as a result they are in a stronger position to deal with the fallout in non-performing loans (NPLs) and to recover more collateral, according to Global Credit Data (GCD).
Compared with the eve of the 2007-9 global financial crisis, banks went into the current pandemic-induced economic shock with more than double the levels of capital and much of it is of higher quality as well thanks to reforms to the Basel prudential framework.
