Pablo Hernández de Cos: How to preserve pandemic-struck viable firms for a stronger recovery Introductory remarks by Mr Pablo Hernández de Cos, Governor of the Bank of Spain and Chair of the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision, at the European Systemic Risk Board (ESRB) virtual seminar on “Corporate insolvencies and public support measures”, 29 April 2021. * * * Many thanks to the ESRB Secretariat for organising this seminar. And let me also thank and welcome all participants to this event. I will devote these brief opening remarks to outline why, at the ESRB, we consider the topic of the seminar “Corporate insolvencies and public support measures” a very relevant and timely one. The starting point is our perception that, in the context of the current crisis, even if the macrofinancial outlook has improved, uncertainty remains high. And one of the main elements of this uncertainty is precisely related to the extent of the damage inflicted by the crisis on the corporate sector, whose magnitude will be a key determinant of the persistence of the crisis and the strength of the economic recovery. Therefore, we need to measure this risk carefully and be ready to adapt our policies to mitigate it to the extent possible. And this is particularly relevant in the current phase of the crisis.
And, as second-round effect, this could also impact the profitability and creditworthiness of financial institutions, and, if insolvency problems affect a significant proportion of firms, it could potentially trigger negative financial loops. Second, a high level of corporate debt, even if not leading to defaults, can still be a drag on investment in the years to come, lowering productivity and economic growth. The experience from the global financial crisis indeed shows that highly indebted firms are less dynamic in terms of capital investment and employment. And these two implications of high indebtedness can feed back into each other. The contraction of investment reduces future profitability and repayment capacity, and higher default rates make it more difficult to obtain additional financing, thus reducing investment. 1/2  BIS central bankers' speeches  These considerations can provide a rationale to use public resources to support firms with a high level of debt resulting from an exogenous shock, as has been the case with the pandemic, but which are nonetheless viable based on their medium-term perspectives in terms of profitability and productivity considerations. In this regard, the design of public support programmes to help viable firms improve their solvency position poses at least two fundamental challenges, related, first, to the selection of the firms targeted by the aid; and second, the design of a structure of incentives for those firms participating in these programmes.