This report describes all the measures taken by the Central Bank, during the year 2020 marked by the health crisis linked to the Coronavirus, to ensure appropriate financing of the economy and support the banking sector.

In terms of monetary policy, these measures focused on lowering the key rate by 75 basis points to a historically low level of 1.5% and fully freeing the compulsory reserve account.

It also concerns the easing of the conditions for refinancing by the Central Bank of bank loans for Very Small and Medium Enterprises.

In addition, BAM has set up refinancing lines through banks to cover the needs of participatory banks and micro-credit associations.

At the prudential level, BAM has introduced temporary reductions to support the banking sector and consolidate its solidity. These measures, combined with good pre-crisis fundamentals, led to good resilience of the banking sector, with, at the end of 2020, an average solvency ratio of 15.7%, despite a decline in banking results of 43%.

This resilience was confirmed by the results of the stress tests carried out by the banks and by BAM in the 2nd and 4th quarter of 2020. In terms of liquidity, the situation of the banks remained comfortable thanks to the measures taken by the Bank.

In terms of banking supervision, the Bank had to adapt to the context of the health and economic crisis through monitoring priority sources of risk and increased attention to everything relating to customer protection.