a.The Board has the ultimate responsibility for setting the level of liquidity risk tolerance and the liquidity risk management framework of the IB. The liquidity risk tolerance for the IB must be commensurate with its ability to have sufficient recourse to Shari’ah-compliant funds in order to mitigate this risk.
b.The members of the Board should familiarise themselves with liquidity risk and how it is managed, including IB’s specific liquidity risk. The Board should also understand how other risks affect the IB’s overall liquidity risk strategy, i.e. how a tighter funding market will impact the IB’s liquidity and how other risks, if materialised, could result in a liquidity run on the IB. At least one of the Board members must have detailed understanding of liquidity risk management for Islamic Banks.
c.The Board must ensure that the IB’s liquidity risk tolerance is transformed into actionable elements, reflecting its potential response to a range of plausible events. There are a variety of ways in which an IB can express its risk tolerance. For example, an IB may quantify its liquidity risk tolerance in terms of the level of funding gap the bank decides to assume under normal and stressed business conditions for different maturity buckets.
d.The Board must ensure that liquidity risk tolerance is communicated to all levels of management so that it is taken into account in the various processes of the institution Including, but not limited to product approval, documentation, execution and subsequent monitoring and reporting.
e.The Board must, on a regular basis, and at least on an annual basis, evaluate the relevance of the liquidity risk management strategy and policies based on prevailing and future potential market conditions, ground realities and stakeholders’ expectations while making appropriate changes, as needed. In the case of rapidly changing market conditions related to liquidity, the Board may decide to make appropriate revisions more frequently. The strategy may comprise different high-level qualitative and quantitative objectives, parameters and limits.
f.In line with the stated risk tolerance, the Board must establish, approve and review from time to time, the liquidity risk management strategy and significant policies, taking into consideration the IB’s business model, legal structure, complexity, key lines of business, and macroeconomic and regulatory environment.
g.The Board must ensure that senior management transforms board-approved strategies and policies into detailed and well-documented guidance, procedures and operating instructions which are properly aligned from risk and reward perspectives.
h.The Board must also approve and review the IB’s liquidity contingency funding plan (CFP) established for handling institution-specific or market-wide liquidity stress to ensure that the IB continues to fund its important activities on a timely basis, without incurring unacceptable costs or losses.
i.The Board must establish a mechanism for regular monitoring and detailed reporting of the liquidity risk profile of the IB. It must periodically review this information, and information on the IB’s level of liquidity, in order to be able to provide strategic direction on a timely basis. The Board must have in place a system to review liquidity reports sent to it by management; identify liquidity concerns; and follow up on remedial action undertaken by management.
j.The Board must proactively seek and review information related to any major institutional- and market-level events that could impair the liquidity position of the IB. Institutional-level events may include deterioration in the value and marketability of liquid asset holdings, significant funding concentrations, increasing costs of funding, significant withdrawal of deposits and investment accounts (IA), an escalating funding gap, frequent and sizeable breaches of limits, cash-flow shortages, major losses in operational results, etc. Market-level events may include a rating downgrade or a significant breach in Shari`ah compliance or other breaches, with a potential to transform into increased reputational risk and other negative market events.