For years, financial institutions, insurance undertakings and other financial market participants have been operating in an increasingly difficult market environment. Now, with the Covid-19 crisis, further imponderabilities have been added which are also relevant from a regulatory perspective.

At its annual press conference on 12 May 2020, the German Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin) addressed the emerging regulatory challenges. Although it cannot and does not want to suspend existing supervisory law, it will use legal leeway to adapt supervisory practice to the crisis. This applies, for instance, to the following measures.