Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
In banking, liquidity is the ability to meet obligations when they come due without incurring unacceptable losses. Managing liquidity is a daily process requiring bankers to monitor and project cash flows to ensure adequate liquidity is maintained. Maintaining a balance between short-term assets and short-term liabilities is critical.
Funding liquidity is the availability of credit to finance the purchase of financial assets. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) defines funding liquidity as "the ability of a solvent institution to make agreed-upon payments in a timely fashion". [1] Funding liquidity is essentially a binary concept: a bank can either settle obligations or it ...
Liquidity is a concept in economics involving the convertibility of assets and obligations. It can include: Market liquidity, the ease with which an asset can be sold; Accounting liquidity, the ability to meet cash obligations when due; Liquid capital, the amount of money that a firm holds
Liquidity is a prime concern in a banking environment and a shortage of liquidity has often been a trigger for bank failures. Holding assets in a highly liquid form tends to reduce the income from that asset (cash, for example, is the most liquid asset of all but pays no interest) so banks will try to reduce liquid assets as far as possible.
In response to liquidity risks, bank regulators agreed global standards to reduce banks' ability to engage in liquidity and maturity transformation, thereby reducing banks' exposure to runs. Traditionally, the response to this risk was a combination of deposit insurance and discount window access.
As a result, the G20 launched an overhaul of banking regulation known as Basel III. In addition to changes in capital requirements, Basel III also contains two entirely new liquidity requirements: the net stable funding ratio (NSFR) and the liquidity coverage ratio (LCR).
Here, Treasury is responsible for the key funds transfer pricing (FTP) function, that prices liquidity for business lines within the bank; i.e., where funds that go toward lending products (asset sales teams) are charged a term and risk-appropriate rate, whereas funds generated by deposits (and related) are credited similarly.
Contemporary bank management methods for liquidity are based on maturity analysis of all the bank's assets and liabilities (off balance sheet exposures may also be included). Assets and liabilities are put into residual contractual maturity buckets such as 'on demand', 'less than 1 month', '2–3 months' etc.