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Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic of Financial Institutions

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is an infectious and contagious respiratory disease caused by a new strain of coronavirus that causes illness to humankind. The hit of the disease from late 2019 to a high peak in 2020 has made it a pandemic that has affected all the economies’ sectors. One of the most hit sectors is the financial institutions. Additionally, there has been a various program that was initiated by the Federal Reserve Banks and the United States Government that have significantly affected the financial institutions. This essay, therefore, elucidates how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected the operations and performance of specific financial institutions. Moreover, it identifies assistance programs initiated by the Federal Reserve Banks and the US government to the financial institution.

The COVID-19 pandemic has greatly affected various financial institutions, especially in the United States of America. One of the affected financial institutions is the Fifth Third Bank. Like other banks, the bank has been a force to reduce the number of customers at the service desk to reduce the disease rate, hence making them access some of the services online. Additionally, the bank was forced to reduce the number of tellers by just a few to assist everyone stays at a distance (Fifth Third, 3). Furthermore, another financial institution that felt the impact of COVID-19 is Capital One Financial Corp. Capital One offered to have fee suppression and minimum payment assistance for cardholders affected the pandemic (White, 2). Notably, the above adjustments were caused by the pandemic, which results in losses for the banks and financial institutions.

However, during the hardship, the Federal and the US government initiated assistance programs to rescue the finical institution. The introduction of unemployment insurance has helped the affected individuals – those who lost their jobs and those with a low income. Consequently, the government also provided some tax filing deadline extensions to help financial institutions and other businesses. Therefore, companies and institutions, and the government should have an emergency kitty for such unforeseen circumstances.

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