Taking stock of the financial sector policy response to COVID-19 around the world Image The massive macro-financial shock caused by the COVID-19 pandemic has precipitated an unprecedented global recession and put the financial sector under strain. Aiming to mitigate the impact, financial sector authorities around the world have reacted by implementing a wide-ranging set of support measures to preserve the well-functioning of core markets and maintain the provision of critical financial services to the real economy, including lending and payments, while at the same time safeguarding bank balance sheet transparency and financial stability (e.g. Altavilla et al. 2020, FSB 2020). Tracking interventions is key to benchmark policy responses across countries, evaluate their effectiveness and potential unintended consequences, and inform policy making going forward. To this end, The World Bank has compiled a publicly available database with financial sector policy measures (Alonso Gispert et al. 2020). The database offers three distinctive features. First, it tracks the measures in over 150 economies with a main focus on emerging market and developing economies (EMDEs). Second, it categorizes the measures using a simple classification to facilitate analysis. Third, where available, each measure is accompanied by a date, the identification of the issuing authority, and a link to the official source of the announcement.