By far not all the lessons of the 2008 financial crisis have been learned. And those that have been learned have not necessarily been applied. Nevertheless, one of them – drawn and applied – will certainly have been of great help in the current crisis.

BIS, aka central bank of central banks, says that the banks have served as a “reliable first line of defense” and that “backed by swift action by the authorities, banks helped to limit economic stress at the beginning of the pandemic”.

I must stress the fact that the starting point of 2008 crisis is very different than the actual one. Back then, the crisis came from a freewheeling financial sector, overwhelmed by bets on sub-prime mortgages, which have proved to be much more dangerous than expected. Poorly capitalised, many banks that had considered risk management as a trivial activity found themselves on the brink of collapse, with some having to seek state support. In the actual case, the crisis did not initiate from the financial sector and it affects entire global economy.

FINMA independent supervisor of the Swiss financial market, has published its annual Risk Monitor. This report specifies the most important risks that supervised institutions are currently encountering and portrays the focus of FINMA’s supervisory activity.

In mid-2020, Swiss banks held claims on foreign companies totalling USD 78.1 billion (CHF 72 billion), according to figures from the Bank for International Settlements.

According to Swiss National Bank statistics 75% of these loans are held by two biggest banks, Credit Suisse and UBS. Coupled with bankruptcies and international fraud in the first half of the year that Swiss banks faced in commodity trade finance segment, I believe it is safe to say that FINMA will be monitoring the activities of the banks ever more closely.