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BANKERS TUTORIAL · RBI · TOPIC & REVISION GUIDE

Topic guide: Funding liquidity risk: timing, concentration and buffers

Funding liquidity risk concerns difficulty meeting obligations as they fall due without unacceptable cost or disruption. It depends on cash-flow timing, access to reliable funding and the ability to convert usable assets into cash.

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2 min read Original learning material · Prepared 14 Oct 2026

This is an independent topic guide, not the official syllabus. Compare it with the current paper outline and rules published by the examination authority.

01 / UNDERSTANDING

Learning objectives

Cover cash-flow ladders, contingent funding, asset marketability and stress assumptions without confusing funding risk with accounting capital. Distinguish cash already available, dependable receipts and uncertain replacement funds. Your practical tasks are to build a dated inflow-and-outflow ladder and classify dependable and contingent funding separately. These conceptual objectives are a study framework, not an official question allocation. Demonstrate the distinction with a fresh worked case, including the assumptions that make the answer valid.

02 / UNDERSTANDING

The concept in context

Funding liquidity risk concerns difficulty meeting obligations as they fall due without unacceptable cost or disruption. It depends on cash-flow timing, access to reliable funding and the ability to convert usable assets into cash. Prepare a near-term cash-flow ladder and distinguish dependable inflows from assumptions about asset sales or refinancing.

03 / UNDERSTANDING

A worked learning case

A fictional bank expects payments of 70 tomorrow, holds usable cash of 25 and has dependable incoming receipts of 30 before those payments. Its specified pre-funding gap is 15. A plan to sell another asset may help, but relying on an uncertain sale price or settlement time introduces further assumptions that should be visible in the analysis.

ORIGINAL EDUCATIONAL PRACTICE

Try it before you check.

What is the cash gap before any uncertain asset sale?

Show the answer and reasoning

15 units.

Available cash and dependable inflows total 25 plus 30, or 55. Against payments of 70, that leaves a shortfall of 15. Counting an uncertain sale as if it were already settled would hide execution risk. This timing calculation does not by itself establish whether the institution is solvent overall.

Two traps to watch for.

  • Counting uncertain refinancing as guaranteed cash availability.
  • Ignoring concentration in funding sources or payment dates.

YOUR TOPIC-SPECIFIC LEARNING MAP

Your revision map

  1. Build a dated inflow-and-outflow ladder.

  2. Classify dependable and contingent funding separately.

  3. Test the largest withdrawal or delay assumption.

Explain the idea, apply it to a new situation, then check what changed in your reasoning.

BANKERS TUTORIAL · SOURCE NOTES

Keep the source alongside your notes.

Official links provide subject context and authoritative reference material. This guide’s explanation, scenario and question are original Bankers Tutorial learning content.

  1. m.rbi.org.in https://m.rbi.org.in/commonman/english/scripts/FAQs.aspx?Id=711
  2. www.rbi.org.in https://www.rbi.org.in/scripts/DataDefinition.aspx

For RBI preparation, check the current official notice before relying on changing dates, rules or examination requirements.

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