Crisis management

Leaders of companies including Citizens, Comerica and Truist offered more upbeat assessments of loan demand and credit quality than they have in recent weeks. But others warned of weakness in key sectors such as energy and real estate, and said forbearance policies may be hiding potential pitfalls.

Bankers spent Monday cleaning up damaged branches, wondering if their small-business clients will need more emergency aid and contemplating how the racial and economic inequalities highlighted by days of violent protests nationwide can be corrected.

The takeaway from the PPP rollout is that bankers must protect their reputations and limit their risk appetites as they participate in further government-backed rescue programs.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren is calling on the Federal Reserve to hold corporate executives personally liable if they take bailout money intended to bolster credit markets and fail to meet all the certification requirements.

Coronavirus has taken bankers out of their comfort zone. But they should view adaptations they’ve made in confronting the pandemic as a chance to hone their emergency response skills, not a permanent new normal.