Liquidity stress testing remains a cornerstone of effective risk management and regulatory compliance for banks. However, a persistent challenge lies in interpreting what constitutes a “severe but plausible” stress scenario, particularly in the context of evolving depositor behaviours and increasing digitalisation of banking.

This paper aims to address this challenge by examining how stress scenarios can be robustly calibrated using empirical evidence backed by statistical methods, with particular focus on liquidity stress testing informing the Internal Liquidity Adequacy Assessment Process (ILAAP).

On 27th June 2024, the Prudential Regulation Authority (“PRA”) published the ICAAP Scenarios for non-systemic UK banks, which are the supply shock scenario and the demand shock scenario. This article summarises the key factors of the scenarios and provides specific points on how small- and medium-sized banks should approach there stress testing design processes, with relation to the 2024 ICAAP Scenarios.