ECB Asks Banks for Emergency Plans to Deal With Coronavirus
ECB Asks Banks for Emergency Plans to Deal With Virus Outbreak
(Bloomberg) -- The European Central Bank is asking lenders about their ability to keep functioning in case they’re directly affected by the coronavirus outbreak that’s rippling through the global economy.
The institution’s supervisory arm on Wednesday sent a letter to banks under its remit, asking for staffing plans and the resilience of their IT infrastructure, an ECB spokesman said by phone. The inquiry focuses on the operational impact of the spreading disease and not on the economic fallout, he said.
Lenders across Europe are taking precautions to ensure they can keep operating as the virus spreads. HSBC Holdings Plc had to evacuate parts of its London office on Thursday after an individual tested positive there. Italy’s UniCredit SpA, headquartered in one of Europe’s most heavily affected areas, is encouraging staff to work from home and is banning non-essential travel as three employees tested positive for the virus.
Deutsche Bank AG and Credit Suisse Group AG have split teams in several locations into physically separated units to ensure continuity should one of them be affected by the virus. Both are starting to implement the measure in their home countries after rolling it out in Asia and other affected areas.
Spain’s Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria SA on Thursday moved about 100 staff from its headquarters to a contingency site in a different part of Madrid. No worker at BBVA has yet been affected by the virus, the lender’s press office said. It’s the first time the bank has had to put into action the emergency office.
Banco Santander SA is advising employees to postpone meetings involving large numbers of people and to avoid non-essential travel.
Global cases from the coronavirus outbreak have topped 95,500 and the death toll rose to 3,285. Shares of European lenders have taken a beating, with the Stoxx 600 Banks Index down more than 20% from last month’s peak.
The ECB itself has also restricted all non-essential travel by members of its executive board and staff and canceled conferences due to the virus. The measures are meant to ensure the safety of employees while “maintaining a fully operational central bank and banking supervision function,” President Christine Lagarde has said.
--With assistance from Sonia Sirletti, Steven Arons, Patrick Winters and Charlie Devereux.
To contact the reporters on this story: Alexander Weber in Brussels at aweber45@bloomberg.net;Nicholas Comfort in Frankfurt at ncomfort1@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Dale Crofts at dcrofts@bloomberg.net, Christian Baumgaertel, Ross Larsen
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