BANKING SECTOR EFFORTS TO CONTAINMENT/ DAMAGE LIMITATION OF COVID-19 CRISIS AS A PREDICTIVE FACTOR IN THE ABILITY TO RECOVERY OF SMES IN JORDANIAN

Objective: The research aims to identify the efforts made by the banking sector to contain the damages caused by the COVID-19 in all its aspects (situation assessment and analysis, and crisis intervention) from the banking sector employees’ perspective. The research also aims to identify the role of the banking sector's efforts in containing the COVID-19 crisis damages on predicting the ability of Jordanian SMEs to recover their activity.   Methodology: The research population consisted of two sub-populations; the first consists a cluster sample was taken from Jordanian banks branch managers, all employees in the risk departments, and employees responsible for credit operations in (Bank of Jordan and the Islamic International Arab Bank), The second subpopulation consists of all SMEs’ owners, 24,000 enterprises in the Northern, Central, and Southern regions of Jordan.   Findings: The study found that there is a positive and statistically significant impact of the banking sector's efforts to contain COVID-19 crisis damage in its dimensions (efforts to assess and analyze the situation and efforts to intervene in the crisis) on the ability of SMEs to recover their activity. The results showed that SMEs suffer from an unprecedented shock and depression in the absence of financial assistance and facilities from the banking sector.   Conclusion: The responses showed (73.33%) of project owners indicated that banks and lenders did not provide any credit facilities.