Use of the planned committed liquidity facility being established by the Reserve Bank of Australia will be "routine" and relatively inexpensive for banks.
Guy Debelle, assistant governor of the RBA, provided an extra perspective on the proposed facility in a
speech to an Australian Financial Markets Association forum on Friday.
The CLF was foreshadowed more than two years ago. Banks will pay a 15 basis point commitment fee to the RBA for the CLF, which will help bridge the gap between their actual holdings of high-quality liquid assets and the level required by the new liquidity standard.
Debelle said that at the present time ADIs own around A$130 billion of high-quality liquid assets.
He said that on "a rough estimate, [this] would be as much as $300 billion short of where they would need to be to meet the Basel [liquidity] standard, given their current balance sheet structures.
This standard requires banks to hold enough high-quality liquid assets to withstand a 30-day period of stress.
Debelle said that on "our assessment, ADIs' aggregate holdings of HQLAs are broadly appropriate to the current size of the market," - a view endorsed by APRA last week.
"Should the supply of these securities increase further, as is currently projected [given large budget deficits], we would expect that ADIs would raise their holdings in line with the increased supply."
"That said, it is not possible or desirable to be too precise about what is appropriate.
"The aim is to ensure that the markets for government securities continue to function well. We don't want to find out the hard way that ADIs are holding too large a share of the market.
"Compelling ADIs to hold the entire supply of government debt would be counter-productive for the liquidity of these markets. It would defeat the purpose of the liquidity standards, which is for banks to hold liquid assets."
When it comes into operation, in January 2015, the CLF "will work in exactly the same way as the Bank's existing liquidity facility," Debelle said.
"Indeed, the CLF is simply a means by which the Reserve Bank will make a contractual commitment to an ADI to provide funding under its liquidity facility."
"As is the case in commercial lending contracts more generally, the Bank's commitment under the CLF will be contingent on appropriate conditions being met, namely an assessment that the ADI continues to have positive net worth.
"As I have said, the CLF simply guarantees access to the Bank's existing liquidity facility, and ES account-holders use this facility every day.
"At the present time, it is used almost exclusively for intra-day funding. After November this year, when direct entry payments are settled for same-day value, it will be used for open repos as well."
"The consequence of this is that small 'drawings' on the CLF will be a routine event, as part of normal operations to manage payment flows."
"Provided the funds are re-paid [on the] same day, or, in the case of open repos, are retained in the ADI's ES account, there need be no cost to using the facility in this way.
"However, should the funds be used for any other purpose, such that the balance on the account is below where it should be, the penalty will be 25 basis points above the cash rate target.
"Such a use of the CLF is likely to occur in more stressed circumstances."