Regulatory liquidity ratios in Germany

Many banks have recently started to publish their regulatory liquidity ratios in the annual report. Whether such information is valuable for shareholders and depositors is at the focus of this paper. We formulate four hypotheses on how bank-specific characteristics, such as expected deposit withdrawals and risks in the loan portfolio, systematically affect the regulatory liquidity ratio. We test the hypotheses by using a confidential dataset of German savings and cooperative banks. The evidence we present supports the view that publishing regulatory liquidity ratios is not sufficient for an adequate assessment of the banks' liquidity position.