That said, an improving path could be seen throughout Q2, in tandem with the ongoing gradual reopening of the economy. At present, then, we are witnessing an incipient recovery in the economy, which, however, is still incomplete, uncertain and uneven. The correlation of this economic activity during Q2 with the intensity of the restrictions on people’s movement in force at each point in time was very high. Thus, some indicators that measure people’s movements hit record lows in the first two weeks of April, with declines of around 80% in motorway traffic and fuel consumption, and of over 90% in the case of airport traffic. This was reflected in the high-frequency indicators of economic activity in the weeks in which the lockdown was stricter; then, for example, we saw reductions in electricity 1  consumption by firms and in consumer spending paid using cards of approximately 30% and 60%, respectively. For April as a whole, there was an unprecedented event in the time series when some variables fell practically to zero. This was the case of new car registrations and international tourist inflows, the latter variable obviously being closely related to the restrictions on personal movement. Since early May, and to a greater extent in June, the progressively staggered and regionbased easing of the lockdown measures prompted a gradual recovery in the mobility indicators and, in tandem, in economic activity indicators.
For this to be the case, however, an individual who is convicted of illegal activities, or who violates a firm’s code of conduct would need to face the risk of being permanently denied employment in the financial industry. Rather than paying for the performance bond upfront, the bond is posted in terms of the privilege to continue to work in the industry. There are several steps that can be taken to implement this concept. The first step is to make it more difficult for employees in finance who cross ethical boundaries to be able to move from one firm to another in order to escape the consequences. Currently, lenders who are considering making a loan to a borrower can look up the borrower’s credit score which reflects the borrower’s performance on past loans. In a similar manner, it would be helpful if financial firms, prior to making a hiring decision, could look up a candidate’s “ethics and compliance score” that reflects the individual’s past performance at other financial firms. Along these lines, one approach would be to create a central registry that tracks the hiring and firing of traders and other financial professionals across the industry. There would be many details to sort out regarding how to do this in a manner that was both transparent and consistent with due process. The database could be maintained by the official sector – specifically, by financial institution supervisors – based on information provided by supervised financial institutions.