The Pacific’s biggest commercial financial institutions have come together to share ways to stay resilient during the
COVID-19 crisis.
In a first-of-its-kind virtual meeting hosted by the International Finance Corporation (IFC), senior management from the
Pacific’s biggest providers of finance reviewed global best practices, learned from past crises and discussed measures
taken by other financial institutions around the globe.
IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, is the largest global development institution focused on the private sector in
emerging markets, working in more than 100 countries. With funding support from the governments of Australia and New
Zealand, IFC works in the Pacific to stimulate private sector investment and reduce poverty in the region.
“With an economic downturn which is expected to leave no Pacific nation unscathed, IFC is also working to help financial
institutions in the region continue to back businesses, in particular small and medium sized companies,” Thomas J.
Jacobs, IFC’s Country Manager for Australia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea and the Pacific Islands told banking
executives at the virtual meeting. “It’s important to keep them operating, and for that they need finance.”
IFC has held more than 35 virtual meetings for banks and financial institutions across Asia-Pacific, helping to
strengthen the important financial sector at a time that economies are under huge pressure.
“A pandemic of this scale and nature is giving rise to unique challenges and it is evident that there is a shift in the
focus of operational risk management,” said Anuradha Sridhar, IFC’s Financial Institutions Group Advisory Regional Risk
Specialist for South Asia. There is a need, more than ever, to address emerging risks and rethink our priorities.”
The webinar was attended by participants from Pacific nations including Papua New Guinea, Fiji, Samoa, Tonga and
Vanuatu. They considered lessons from Asian banks on their COVID-19 responses, including a shift to digital channels,
with the pandemic forcing banks to significantly accelerate their digital capacity.
“In the Pacific, where countries have challenging geographical terrains and most of the populations live in rural and
remote areas where it may not be commercially viable for banks to open branch networks, implementing digital technology
is seen as a necessity, as long as regulations allow,” said Kevin Gani, Operations Officer for IFC’s Financial
Institutions Group in Asia-Pacific.
A key area covered at the meeting was financial stress testing, which allows banks to assess the impact of the crisis
and to devise a plan to ensure resilience and future growth.
“Stress testing is as much art as it is science; good judgment is as important as measuring and evaluating data. It is a
critical part of a holistic risk management approach to deliver robust and forward-looking contingency planning, which
helps to ensure resilience during times of stress,” said Paula Felipe, IFC’s Financial Institutions Group Asia Pacific
Risk Management Advisory Lead.