Covid-19- Financial Regulators are Watching and Waiting

1. Everyone unilaterally agrees that COVID- 19 represents an unprecedented period in history. Never before has every country been simultaneously and fully disabled. Governments and other regulatory authorities have been caught equally off- guard as the constituents and institutions that they support and empower. The response from regulators has been quite muted: the output has primarily been warnings and loose suggestions with formal guidelines and policies lacking. Firms are utilizing their “spare time” Firms are utilizing their “spare time” Most firms have been scrambling over the past two months to establish working guidelines. Some are putting that “spare time” to good use. Now that people are no longer commuting to work, many employers have asked their staff to use the additional time to test outdated policies, revamp them and create new ones better suited to meet the contemporary needs of remote work. The added pressure of The added pressure of Regulatory response to Regulatory response to COVID-19 an economic collapse an economic collapse COVID-19 If the threat of a global pandemic and the reality of a contagion infecting millions of people and killing hundreds of thousands wasn’t great enough, key economies around the globe have collapsed. Given how woefully ill-prepared the world was for the onslaught of COVID-19, it would be unfair to critique how regulators needed time to issue their relaxed policies, timelines and operational guidelines. Bad actors were bound to be discovered Bad actors were bound to be discovered Questionable behavior by some US Senators and public health officials has been repeatedly cited as an example of this increased access to material information and the proportionally increased risk for market abuse. Fingers quickly pointed to US Senator Richard Burr who reportedly sold millions in stocks following a confidential briefing on the looming threat of a pandemic that he and only a few others were privy to Once the wait is over Once the wait is over Governments have relaxed their standards in just about every aspect of regulation and deadlines from drug development to financial obligations in the wake of the coronavirus as a response to it.