This chapter examines how the digital financial infrastructure that emerged in the wake of the 2008 GFC assisted to address the financial, economic, and health challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic. While the 2008 Crisis was a financial crisis that impacted the real economy, COVID-19 was a health and geopolitical crisis that impacted the real economy. In fact, during COVID-19 the financial system turned from problem child to crisis manager, having provided effective tools to support the crisis response. Notwithstanding the former, digital finance has also created new forms of risk (TechRisk).

This chapter analyses the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on developing countries. While the overall number of direct casualties of the crisis may reach ten million or more, this chapter argues that the impact of the crisis on the Low and Middle Income Countries may be potentially far greater, owing to tragedies indirectly caused by the crisis, such as hunger and famine. We estimate that, if poorly managed, the COVID-19 crisis could take 100 million or more lives in developing countries. In order to reach this number, we have considered and collected the different ways in which COVID-19 may hit these countries. We further provide an overview on how COVID-19 is hindering the progress on the United Nations Sustainable Developments Goals (SDGs) and submit that it may even put the realisation of the SDGs at risk. Arguing that the measures taken by European countries so far are insufficient to mitigate the economic and social impact of the crisis, we propose policy measures to mitigate the most severe impacts of the crisis on developing countries.