COVID-19, DIGITAL FINANCE AND EXISTENTIAL SUSTAINABILITY CRISES: OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES FOR LAW AND REGULATION IN THE 2020S

ABSTRACT

This article examines how the digital financial infrastructure that emerged in the wake of the 2008 Global Financial Crisis is being tested and leveraged to meet some of the financial, economic and health challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic. The origins of the 2008 crisis and the current crisis are different the 2008 crisis was a financial crisis that spilt over into the real economy, whileCOVID-19is a health and geopolitical crisisspilling over into the real economy. As such,COVID-19 - a pandemic and an existential sustainability crisis - requires different approaches. This article explores the role of digital finance in this context on two levels. At the macro level, it identifies how digital finance has been used to address areas of systemic risk and underpin wider financial stability. At the micro level, it illustrate show digital financial tools can be used to address a range of emerging challenges particularly relating to recovery. Looking forward, it argues that digitisation generally and of finance in particular driven by the COVID-19 crisis - while providing effective tools to support the response - has also raised new challenges, particularly around new forms of Tech-Riskarising from concentration and data. Looking forward, these are among the most significant challenges for policy, law and regulation in the 2020s.