In early 2011 the Payments Risk Committee (PRC) initiated a study of the flow of United States dollars (USD) over the course of a business day across key payments, clearing, and settlement systems around the world. The study was designed to provide a better understanding of the magnitude of the flows and highlight the significant interconnectedness of this infrastructure. In early 2015, the PRC initiated the refresh of the 2011 study based on data from 2014. On behalf of the PRC, we are pleased to provide the refreshed results of this study—the Intraday Liquidity Flows report—to the public, in particular to the financial institutions that depend on payments, clearing, and settlement services that are the plumbing of the financial system.
The 2015 study provides a view of the infrastructure that enabled approximately $14.8 trillion of USD denominated payments and the associated $7.1 trillion of cash needed to settle those payments to move through the financial system in 2014. Seventeen financial market utilities and two clearing banks participated in the original study and this refresh, providing hour-by-hour statistics on the movement of USD into and out of their settlement accounts. The study describes the dependencies and interconnections across payments, clearing, and settlement systems. It highlights the importance of the underlying infrastructures and the value of continuous review of and improvements to liquidity management. In addition, the study underscores the influence that underlying economic conditions, regulatory mandates, and liquidity policies have on the pattern of hourly USD flows.
The report is available at the Payments Risk Committee’s website.
