The Wuhan COVID19 disease in China turned a worldwide pandemic in 2020. It disrupted normal ways of life; caused collateral damage across the globe; and altered traditional banking model due to multiple lockdowns, movement restrictions, border closures, and other protocols put in place by governments to control the spread of the disease. Ghana was not an exception to all of these challenges posed by COVID-19 pandemic. Riding on the new-normal theoretical underpin, this study empirically quantified the effect of COVID19 on financial soundness of Fidelity Bank Ghana Limited. CAMEL indicators measured financial soundness. Using secondary data analysis technique, one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), descriptive statistics, and SPSS software, the research established that: (i) the bank performed better in all the aforementioned indicators in 2020 than in 2019; and (ii) there was no statistical difference between the performance of the bank in 2019 and 2020 (except in liquidity). Theoretically, the new normal theory proved to be relevant in this study as the bank performed better in 2020 (when banking halls were mostly closed) than in 2019 due to its increased investments in financial technology (FinTech), digital technology (DigTech), and big-data technology (BigTech). The study offered far-reaching results-backed recommendations.

Bank failures and banking crises create fears and anxieties in various stakeholders; and some of remote causes of bank failures across the globe are weak/poor corporate governance structures and practices, credit risk; government recapitalization regulation; corruption and embezzlement of banks’ assets; and weak legal/regulatory and political institutions. Undercapitalization is a symptom of banks’ capital inadequacy to withstand financial shock. Anchored on stakeholder-institutional theory; and secondary data, and general linear model, this study investigated the moderating impact of politics on the relationship between board effectiveness, management efficiency and capital adequacy of Gambia’s banking sector while controlling for financial leverage. The studied established that: the interaction of political stability and board effectiveness in risk management has significant negative effect on banks’ capital adequacy in Gambia; the interaction of political stability and management efficiency in profit maximization has significant positive effect on banks’ capital adequacy in Gambia; financial leverage has significant positive effect on banks’ capital adequacy in Gambia; board effectiveness in risk management has significant positive effect on banks’ capital adequacy in Gambia; and management efficiency in profit maximization has significant negative effect on banks’ capital adequacy in Gambia. The relevance of the joint stakeholder-institutional theory was established in this study. The work recommends that all political stakeholders in Gambia should strive to stabilize the country’s political system, and that the board of directors of banks in Gambia should ensure that their management teams apply prudent and best banking practices in declaring profit. This is because a positive profit should increase the capital adequacy of banks in a normal situation.