FSA publishes feedback on the liquidity requirement discussion paper

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LONDON – The Financial Services Authority (FSA) has today published feedback on its discussion paper on liquidity requirements for banks and building societies. The paper looked at how liquidity policy should develop and focused on lessons learned following recent market conditions.

Respondents broadly agreed with the policy objectives set out in the paper. There was strong agreement on the need to continue co-ordinating the FSA’s work on liquidity both at a national level (with other authorities) and on an international level. Most respondents stated that they are reviewing their stress-testing scenarios and contingency funding plans in line with lessons learned over the past year.

The majority of respondents stressed the importance of the close relationship between the central bank’s role, actions and provisions, and firms’ internal liquidity risk management processes, as well as any measures developed by the FSA under a new regulatory regime. Respondents also agreed that quantitative requirements were a necessary component of any liquidity regime, particularly for the short term, and thought that one single quantitative regime should replace the existing three.

There was some scepticism, however, about the usefulness of quantitative requirements to safeguard against long-term chronic liquidity stresses and about the possibility of standardisation across institutions.

Paul Sharma, director of wholesale and prudential policy at the FSA, says: “We welcome the wide range of feedback we have received to DP07/7. The responses contain useful comments and suggestions, which we will consider in detail as we develop our work on a new liquidity regime. We look forward to continuing our constructive engagement with the industry and other interested stakeholders, and remain committed to full transparency throughout the ensuing consultation process.”

The FSA will consult further on all aspects of the new regime later this year, including setting out proposals on sound practices for managing liquidity risk with a strong focus on stress-testing. These enhanced qualitative requirements will reflect the work being carried out by the Basel Committee and will be the centrepiece of the new liquidity policy.