The relationship between capital and liquidity prudential instruments

Basel III introduced unweighted capital standard and new regulatory liquidity standards to complement the revised risk-weighted capital requirements. This change in banking sector regulation raised questions on how the capital and liquidity requirements interact and how they should be jointly treated. In the paper, we assess how a regulatory and a subsequent economic shock, and banks’ subsequent response to it, affects compliance with the four regulatory requirements. We find that the capital and liquidity requirements can act as both, substitutes and complements, depending on the adjustment strategy banks choose to react to these shocks. We assert that to be able to properly calibrate macroprudential policy measures such as the counter-cyclical capital buffer, it is vital for macroprudential authorities to look at the initial levels of the other required ratios as well as to monitor banks’ subsequent response.