JOURNAL OF ARTICLE REVIEWS

Article 1: The Impact of coronavirus on the Financial Markets (By Hassan Obeid)

Significant Impact on the Performance of the Financial Markets

There is a lot of pressure on the financial markets and these are becoming more volatile and uncertain after the spread of deadly virus, COVID- 19, around the world. There was freefall in the global equity markets at the end of February 2020. But the outbreak of the coronavirus all over the world has led to disruption in the global economic activity. There was natural concerns and tension among the investors. In a single week which ended in February 28, there were huge losses suffered by the stock markets around the world. Trillions of US dollars of losses were incurred. It was the worst week of the volatile market since the financial crisis of 2008. Despite of the fact that there were several stimulus measures declared by the central banks, there was a clear instability in the market.

Black swan theory can be explained as a metaphor for the events that come as a surprise. These events have major impact and are unexpected. This theory describes those events which have a huge consequence and are known for their dominant role in history. This event is highly relevant in financial markets. Thus, the outbreak of coronavirus pandemic is the unexpected event which has a huge adverse impact on the financial markets (Lin and Tsai, 2019).

The impact of the coronavirus pandemic was not immediate. This was because investors and others were not sure about the duration it will last and whether China would be able to prevent it from spreading to other countries. But as soon as the disease expanded around the world, it was just a matter of time before the stock markets reacted to this novel pandemic. Finally, the crash took place in the last week of February 28. The value of US stocks fell nearly 12%. There were many indices which noticed a drop. The central banks intervened in various ways to stabilise the markets and provide needed fiscal support. There was a cut of interest rates by different central banks. The fears of the investors for their stocks are increasing as the virus is spreading.

Article 2: Reserve Bank of Australia: Financial Stability Review 2020

Involve One of the Financial Institutions and Highlight the Importance of their Function

The article highlights the importance of the Central Bank during the time of the COVID -19 pandemic. The outbreak of the deadly virus is leading to significant pressure in the global financial institutions. The pandemic caused an end to economic growth, low unemployment, low inflation and stable financial markets. After the financial crisis of 2008, the central bank ensured that there is proper liquidity in the market.

The functions of central bank can be classified into traditional functions and developmental functions. Traditional functions include issuing of bank notes, banker to commercial banks, credit control and banker and debt manager to Government. On the other hand, the developmental functions include training facilities to bankers, development of the banking system or lending credit to the priority sector. The central bank controls the monetary system of the economy. The importance of these functions is that this helps to maintain stability in the market (Oosterloo and de Haan, 2004).

During this time of pandemic, Central Bank of Australia is playing a key role in maintaining liquidity and boosting confidence in the economy. It is the responsibility of the Central bank to support the businesses and households during this difficult period. The regulatory authorities of the financial institutions are working together to reduce the economic harm to the best minimum level it can. The central bank is taking steps like easing the monetary policy, implementing various policies. These measures are taken to support the operation of the financial system. It cannot stop the cause of the economic contraction but it can serve as a bridge to minimise the economic harm.

The measures taken by the Reserve Bank of Australia are lowering the cash rate, increasing liquidity through open market operations, increase their lending to businesses and introduction of Term Funding Facility. These measures taken by the Central Bank provided relief to the households and businesses during this difficult time.

Article 3: Capital Raises $9 Million for its AI- based ‘Capital as a Service’ Funding Platform for Startups (By Ingrid Lunden)

Involve New Sources of Funding for a Company either in form of Equity or Debt

In 2019, there were more than 10,000 startups in US alone, raised more than $133 billion in venture funding. The large proportion of this funding was of the equity investments. To help the startups to consider alternative sources of funding, which is less dilutive and give up less or not equity in the process, the company is building a proper platform. Capital has built a new machine, “Capital Machine”. This machine imports into its system the details about the company. After that, it provides tips to the company about the way they can optimise. They provide non- dilutive financing for them. Capital has raised a further $9 million and is able to continue its expansion.

The major difference between debt and equity financing is that the former requires borrowing money directly while the latter means selling the stake of company for securing financial backing. Small businesses rely on bank loans and other alternative like crowdfunding and venture capital. Many companies prefer to use a mixture of equity and debt financing (Mande et al., 2012).

There are many companies who do not have right routes to access to the alternative to equity funding. The reason behind this is the size of the company, that is, if they are too small. Bank banks and other institutional firms handle largely the venture debt and it is used by the larger startups. It is seen that there is a split 50/50 between those that are taking capital debt in order to meet their finding requirements and those which are taking combination of other sources of financing. The Tech companies are the most typical recipients of equity investments.

References

Hassan Obeid. (2020). The Impact of coronavirus on the Financial Markets. Retrieved from https://theconversation.com/the-impact-of-coronavirus-on-the-financial-markets-133183

Ingrid Lunden. (2019). Capital Raises $9 Million for its AI- based ‘Capital as a Service’ Funding Platform for Startups. Retrieved from https://techcrunch.com/2020/06/30/capital-raises-9m-for-its-ai-based-capital-as-a-service-funding-platform-for-startups/

Lin, W. Y., & Tsai, I. C. (2019). Black swan events in China’s stock markets: Intraday price behaviors on days of volatility. International Review of Economics & Finance, 59, 395-411.

Mande, V., Park, Y. K., & Son, M. (2012). Equity or debt financing: does good corporate governance matter?. Corporate Governance: An International Review, 20(2), 195-211.

Oosterloo, S., & de Haan, J. (2004). Central banks and financial stability: a survey. Journal of Financial Stability, 1(2), 257-273.

Reserve Bank of Australia: Financial Stability Review 2020. (2020). Retrieved from https://www.rba.gov.au/publications/fsr/2020/apr/

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