The central bank has postponed the reporting of banks’ intraday liquidity, initially scheduled for June of this year, to January 2022, which has delayed a much stricter monitoring of cash flows.

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) has effectively delayed the transitional arrangement on selected reports which have a frequency of monthly submissions. These reports will help PASB to ensure the smooth functioning of payment and settlement systems and also emphasize the need to measure and anticipate the timing of intraday entries and exits.

The note from the BSP on Circular No. 1123 (Amendments to the guidelines on the report on the intraday liquidity of universal and commercial banks and their banks / quasi-subsidiary banks), which was approved by the Monetary Council on 13 July last, did not indicate a specific reason for the adjustment of the transitional provision.

The intraday liquidity reporting guidelines under Circular No.1064, approved on December 3, 2019, covered the daily monitoring of liquidity requirements of all financial institutions supervised by BSP (BSFI).

These are universal and commercial banks and their subsidiaries or quasi-savings banks, as well as autonomous savings and rural banks.

Tracking the intraday liquidity position is an effective way for the BSP to assess and review whether banks are meeting their intraday obligations on a timely basis.

The BSP will require intraday liquidity metrics that comply with international standards such as maximum daily intraday liquidity usage, intraday debit, gross payments sent and received, and available intraday liquidity position, among other measures.

Autonomous savings banks, quasi-banks and rural / cooperative banks are not required to submit an intraday liquidity report due to the lower volume of payments and settlements, but they must be prepared and submit the required information to the BSP if necessary.

Nonetheless, these stand-alone BSFIs will need to maintain what BSP has declared to be an “adequate and reliable management information system” to measure and monitor selected intraday parameters.

The Intraday Liquidity Report is expected to encourage covered banks and quasi- banks to “take a systematic and disciplined approach to managing their intraday liquidity”. In turn, these reports will enable the PASB to conduct a detailed analysis of the resilience of the banks and quasibanks covered to

intraday liquidity shocks and monitor changes in intraday liquidity risk over time, the BSP said.

Intraday liquidity reporting is part of the BSP’s strengthened liquidity risk management rules. It is also meant to complement the qualitative guidelines for intraday risk management of an older rule or circular # 981.