Included here are physical risks, associated with the materialisation of an effective worsening of climate conditions 13  (e.g. more frequent and longer-lasting droughts, greater likelihood of fires), and transition risks, linked to the adoption of new regulations and taxes and to the transformation of the production process, aimed specifically at mitigating climate change. Intervention by fiscal and environmental authorities is key to achieving an orderly and predictable energy transition. But it is also important that the banking sector allows the financial risks present in the different stages of this process to be duly reflected. We financial supervisors must ensure that banks indeed correctly assess the risks, and promote the development of appropriate reporting standards and databases to measure them. Conclusions In view of the pandemic’s unprecedented economic impact, the Spanish banking sector has emerged as a mitigant of the shock and is called upon to play a key role in financing the recovery. This has been possible for two reasons. First, the sector's healthier starting position, following its restructuring, and the prudential regulations adopted after the global financial crisis. Second, the essential role played by the public support measures in mitigating the impact of the crisis on borrowers’ credit quality, thus preventing a financial crisis component that would have made it deeper and longer-lasting. That said, the crisis has had an adverse and heterogeneous impact on the sector’s profitability, although solvency and default rates have not suffered to date thanks to the support measures adopted.

One the other hand, however, there are still important and rising differences related to the living standard, healthcare, education, sanitary conditions within the countries.  Inequality among the citizens affects their living standards, state of mind and the democracy itself.  Interest in social spending issues has risen globally over the last decade. The IMF has voiced increased concerns about rising inequality, the need to support vulnerable groups, to address demographic, technological and climate developments. In their 2019 report, social spending is mentioned as a key policy in maintaining social and political stability.  Even companies seem to intend to change their strategy. After being accused of an obsession with short-term earnings while neglecting investment, depressing wages and failing to pay for the negative externalities they created, some changes in the corporate decision-making are expected. The second point is that “There is a strong link between financial stability, on the one hand, and capital and financial discipline, on the other.”  A competitive and stable economic framework has to ensure an appropriate balance between rights or liberties and obligations or accountability of entrepreneurs.  While many efforts have already been made on the macroprudential side, we should also pay attention to the micro level. When a crisis hits, you have to have your house in order. That means you have to address preemptively your own vulnerabilities.  At the heart of any economy lies the capital, which in developing countries is the main factor of production.