Final answer:
The Liquidity Coverage Ratio (LCR) ensures that Australian ADIs hold enough liquid assets to cover 30 days of net cash outflows in a stress scenario. This regulatory measure is designed to mitigate risks associated with asset-liability mismatches and to ensure financial stability by safeguarding against sudden withdrawal demands.
Step-by-step explanation:
The Liquidity Coverage Ratio (LCR) requires Australian Authorized Deposit-taking Institutions (ADIs) to hold adequate high-quality liquid assets that can be easily converted into cash to meet their net cash outflows over a 30-day period under an APRA-prescribed stress scenario. This is to ensure that banks have enough liquidity to handle an asset-liability time mismatch, where customers can demand their deposits back in the short term, even though banks may have loaned out these funds on a much longer-term basis.
Understanding LCR is important because it relates to an institution's balance sheet stability, particularly the ability to address liabilities such as customer deposits. The ratio serves as a regulatory measure to assess and mitigate the risks associated with bank capital and liquidity. It seeks to prevent situations where banks could struggle to cover short-term withdrawals by their customers, thereby ensuring overall financial stability.