They have a high degree of interconnectedness, considerably greater than before, and very much sit at the heart of the financial system today. Their resilience is of first order importance, as they potentially constitute single points of failure. Much has been done to increase their resilience, recovery planning and resolvability already, including by my colleagues at the RBA.
The outbreak of COVID-19 was first identified in China and it spread to almost every nation, from advanced economies such as Europe, the United States, and Japan to emerging economies like India, as well as Central and South America.