What is Bank Liquidity?
Bank liquidity is the ability of a bank to meet its short-term financial obligations, principally customer withdrawals and loan commitments, using cash on hand and high-quality liquid assets that can be converted to cash quickly with minimal loss. Liquidity management is one of the core disciplines of banking, governed by both internal policy and regulatory ratios.
How It Works
- Track cash, central bank reserves, and high-quality liquid assets (HQLA).
- Compute the Liquidity Coverage Ratio (LCR): HQLA / 30-day net cash outflows.
- Compute the Net Stable Funding Ratio (NSFR): available stable funding / required stable funding.
- Maintain contingency funding plans and committed lines.
- Stress-test liquidity against deposit runs, market disruption, and rating downgrades.
Saudi Context
SAMA enforces Basel III liquidity standards on Saudi banks, requiring LCR and NSFR above 100%. Saudi banks generally maintain strong liquidity buffers backed by a deposit-heavy funding base. The SAMA-imposed loans-to-deposits ratio cap (historically 90%) is another local liquidity discipline.
Example
A Saudi commercial bank holds SAR 50 billion of HQLA (cash, SAMA reserves, government bonds) and faces projected net 30-day cash outflows of SAR 40 billion in a stress scenario. LCR = 50 / 40 = 125%, comfortably above the 100% regulatory minimum.