What is the liquidity risk of a bank?
Liquidity is the risk to a bank's earnings and capital arising from its inability to timely meet obligations when they come due without incurring unacceptable losses. Bank management must ensure that sufficient funds are available at a reasonable cost to meet potential demands from both funds providers and borrowers.
Liquidity Coverage Ratio (LCR) is a requirement under Basel III whereby banks are required to hold enough high-quality liquid assets to fund cash outflows for 30 days.
Liquidity risk can increase without proper fixed asset management systems in place, particularly when an organization is heavily capital-intensive, such as transport, telecommunications or energy.
Liquidity risk reflects the possibility an institution will be unable to obtain funds, such as customer deposits or borrowed funds, at a reasonable price or within a necessary period to meet its financial obligations.
The three main types are central bank liquidity, market liquidity and funding liquidity.
2) On Hand Liquidity Ratio: This point-in-time ratio, often called the Primary Liquidity Ratio, assesses a bank's ability to satisfy liabilities with on-balance sheet high-quality liquid assets (HQLA). A minimum of 25% is recommended, with less than 15% warranting a Contingency Funding Plan action.
Liquidity Risk Calculation Example
Starting with the current ratio, the formula consists of dividing the “Total Current Assets” by the “Total Current Liabilities”.
The major risks faced by banks include credit, operational, market, and liquidity risks. Prudent risk management can help banks improve profits as they sustain fewer losses on loans and investments.
An example of liquidity risk would be when a company has assets in excess of its debts but cannot easily convert those assets to cash and cannot pay its debts because it does not have sufficient current assets. Another example would be when an asset is illiquid and must be sold at a price below the market price.
This is a “liquidity” problem. System wide illiquidity can make banks insolvent: With consumption goods in short supply, banks can be forced to harvest consumption goods from more valuable, but illiquid, assets to meet the non-negotiable demands of depositors.
Do banks face liquidity risk?
Various types of financial and operating risks, including interest rate, credit, operational, legal and reputational risks, may influence a bank's liquidity profile. Liquidity risk often can arise from perceived or actual weaknesses, failures or problems in the management of other risk types.
The banking system faced increased volatility due to a liquidity crisis in the first quarter of 2023. Banks are focused on stabilizing liquidity and maintaining confidence in the banking system.
Thanks to the U.S. fractional reserve banking system, commercial banks can lend out much of their cash deposits, keeping only a fraction as reserves. But there's a second, less widely recognized source of liquidity for banks: the deposits they obtain through their own lending.
There are two different types of liquidity risk. The first is funding liquidity or cash flow risk, while the second is market liquidity risk, also referred to as asset/product risk.
The fundamental role of banks typically involves the transfor- mation of liquid deposit liabilities into illiquid assets such as loans; this makes banks inherently vulnerable to liquidity risk. Liquidity-risk management seeks to ensure a bank's ability to continue to perform this fundamental role.
Stocks of small and mid-cap companies have high market liquidity risk, as stated above. This is because buyers are uncertain of their potential growth in the future and hence, are unwilling to purchase such securities in fear of incurring losses in the long term.
Bank | Cash as % of Assets | AFS Unrealized Bond Losses on Dec. 31, 2022 |
---|---|---|
SVB Financial | 6.5% | $2.5 billion |
JPMorgan Chase | 15.5% | $11.2 billion |
Bank of America | 7.5% | $4.8 billion |
How to Calculate the LCR. The LCR is calculated by dividing a bank's high-quality liquid assets by its total net cash flows, over a 30-day stress period. The high-quality liquid assets include only those with a high potential to be converted easily and quickly into cash.
Liquidity reflects a financial institution's ability to fund assets and meet financial obligations. It is essential to meet customer withdrawals, compensate for balance sheet fluctuations, and provide funds for growth.
Liquidity Risk Indicators: Low levels of cash reserves, high dependency on short-term funding, or a high ratio of loans to deposits can hint at liquidity risk. Such indicators help banks ensure they can meet their financial obligations as they come due.
What are the consequences of liquidity risk?
Liquidity Risk Faced by Businesses
Such issues may result in payment defaults on the part of the business in question, or even in bankruptcy. Finally, liquidity risk could also mean that a company has difficulty “liquidating” very short-term financial investments.
Credit risk is when companies give their customers a line of credit; also, a company's risk of not having enough funds to pay its bills. Liquidity risk refers to how easily a company can convert its assets into cash if it needs funds; it also refers to its daily cash flow.
2024 in Brief
There are no bank failures in 2024. See detailed descriptions below.
Bank | Forbes Advisor Rating | Learn More |
---|---|---|
Chase Bank | 5.0 | Learn More Read Our Full Review |
Bank of America | 4.2 | |
Wells Fargo Bank | 4.0 | Learn More Read Our Full Review |
Citi® | 4.0 |
There still hasn't been a bank failure in 2024. The last Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC) bank to fail was Citizens Bank of Sac City, Iowa. That was the fifth FDIC bank failure of 2023, a year with some of the largest bank failures in U.S. history.
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