Finance is procyclical: How can this be avoided?
The COVID crisis has once again shown that finance is procyclical. During recessions, companies face the seizing-up of financial markets and more restrictive bank lending conditions. To avoid this procyclicality of finance, an ex-post response to the crisis is implemented during every crisis: loans with a state guarantee, debt restructuring, transformation of debt into equity, etc. This ex-post response is complicated and costly in terms of time and effort. It would be better for finance to be countercyclical, structurally and automatically, and not "manually" when a crisis occurs. This may be achieved through: Countercyclical regulation of banks and institutional investors (insurers), e.g. countercyclical capital rules; The development of "contingent" financing, the servicing of which depends on the company's situation; for example, if the company's financial situation deteriorates beyond pre-determined thresholds, loan servicing is suspended, or loans are automatically converted into equity.