CRISIS MANAGEMENT IN PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS - CROATIAN FINANCIAL SYSTEM AND THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC

Crisis management in the context of public institutions is particularly important, due to the extremely large possible impact of the consequences of systemic crises on society as a whole. Suboptimal or too slow decisions of public institutions usually affect a much wider set of people, entities, and economic and financial developments than when it comes to crisis management in individual companies, even if they are systemically important. This paper focuses on the activities of the Croatian National Bank and the Croatian Financial Services Supervisory Agency in dealing with the crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic and presents the most important activities of the government, government agencies, and commercial banks that have had an impact on financial stability. The analytical part of the paper presents the effect of trading suspension on the Zagreb Stock Exchange on 12th March 2020 and its implications on the market. Although it is still too early to make final assessments, given the course of the pandemic, the available data suggest that the activities of domestic institutions have so far been effective in maintaining financial stability in Croatia.