After a brutal first six months of the year, governments across the world are hoping for an economic bounce-back. Rich-world gdp fell by about 10% in the first half of 2020. Yet much has changed since—including that more people are now wearing masks. Economists, obsessed with translating everything into gdp, wonder if more widespread face-covering could help the recovery.

Cybersecurity oversight is a key fiduciary responsibility for a board of directors and was a significant concern for companies even before the COVID-19 pandemic forced so many organizations to suddenly shift to remote work. Data breaches and other cyber threats pose significant competitive, reputational, and litigation risks and require increasingly costly investments to prevent, detect, and respond to. Changes in the environment as a result of the pandemic have created new risks that need to be managed with board oversight.

A very useful, locally produced web site that provides daily information on the pandemic nationally.

“We argued in the original preprint version of this article on 17 July that Melbourne and Victoria should not waste the opportunity that the (then) 6-week lockdown presented and go hard and early.

By learning from the lessons on social and preventive measures to lower SARS-CoV-2 transmissibility (7,8,12,14), and specifically the lessons from NZ (3), Taiwan and the six Australian jurisdictions that have achieved elimination, Victoria could have increased its chances of also eliminating community transmission.”

University of Melbourne modelled several policy scenarios.

If we ease restrictions when the average number of cases over the previous fortnight is 25 (350 cases total) then it’s more likely than not that cases will get out of hand and restrictions will have to be reinstated to regain control and protect the health system.

Waiting until the average is 5 cases a fortnight – or 70 cases total - reduces the chance of increased restrictions before Christmas to just 3 in 100.

Celebrities and politicians with large social media followings are proving to be key distributors of disinformation relating to coronavirus, according to a study that suggests the factcheckers and mainstream news outlets are struggling to compete with the reach of influencers.

"Taking care of your mind as well as your body is really important while staying at home because of coronavirus (COVID-19). You may feel bored, frustrated or lonely. You may also be low, worried or anxious, or concerned about your finances, your health or those close to you."

This document is a guide on business continuity planning for enterprises, especially for the small and medium sized enterprises in Singapore, to help them deal with the COVID-19 (Coronavirus Disease 2019) outbreak in China.

APRA

• APRA has suspended the majority of its planned policy and supervision initiatives and priorities in response to COVID-19. This response is intended to support APRA-regulated entities to maintain their operations.
• APRA has also suspended public consultations on revisions to the prudential framework until 30 September 2020 (presumably this will include CPS 511 Remuneration). It is unclear yet how this will affect the timeline for FAR implementation (if at all).
• APRA requires ADIs to advise of the reporting treatment for COVID-19 loans and publicly disclose the nature and terms of any repayment deferrals and the volume of COVID-19 loans. Banks have offered COVID-19 loans to affected small business and home loan customers which provides them with an option to defer their repayment for up to six months.
• APRA noted that COVID-19 loans will not be regarded as restructured and the repayment deferral period will not be treated as a period of arrears. APRA confirmed that the Coronavirus SME Guarantee Scheme (see below) will be an eligible guarantee by the government for risk-weighting purposes.

COFR

• COFR noted it is holding regular meetings to ensure coordinated regulatory response to COVID-19 to support credit flow e.g. noting that RBA has announced measures to provide liquidity to financial markets; APRA has announced temporary changes to its expectations on bank capital ratios;ASIC has introduced measures to ensure equity market participants' manage transaction volumes; and APRA and ASIC have reprioritised their regulatory work to minimise the regulatory burden upon institutions.

ASIC

• ASIC will focus its regulatory efforts on challenges crated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Until at least 30 September 2020, the other matters that ASIC will afford priority are where there is the risk of significant consumer harm, serious breaches of the law, risks to market integrity and time-critical matters.
• ASIC has suspended near-term activities which are not time-critical (such as consultation, regulatory reports and reviews).
• ASIC will work with financial institutions to further accelerate the payment of outstanding remediation to customers. It will also maintain its enforcement activities and continue to investigate and take action where the public interest warrants it to do so.
• ASIC will also take account of the circumstances in which lenders, acting reasonably, are currently operating when administering the law.

Government

• The Government will establish the Coronavirus SME Guarantee Scheme. Under the Scheme, the Government will guarantee 50 per cent of new loans by eligible lenders to SMEs. This will result in the Government guaranteeing up to $20 billion to support $40 billion in SME loans.

Read more from the Government

Read more from ASIC

Interesting simulations showing how social distancing measures will affect the spread of the virus and "flatten the curve".