Note 16 - Liquidity risk

Liquidity risk is the risk that the group will be unable to refinance its debt or to finance asset increases. Liquidity risk management starts out from the group's overall liquidity strategy which is reviewed and adopted by the board of directors at least once each year. The liquidity strategy reflects the group's moderate risk profile.

The group mitigates liquidity risk by diversifying its funding across different markets, funding sources, maturities and instruments and through the use of long-term funding. Contingency plans exist both for the group and the SpareBank 1 alliance for managing the liquidity situation in periods of capital market turbulence. These plans address both bank-specific and systemic crises and a combination of the two. The group's objective is to survive twelve months of ordinary operations without access to fresh external funding while housing prices fall 30 per cent. In the same period minimum requirements to LCR shall be fulfilled.

The average residual maturity on the portfolio of senior bonds and covered bonds at the end of the first quarter was 2.80 years. The overall LCR at the same point was 136 per cent and the average overall LCR in the quarter was 117 per cent. The LCR in Norwegian kroner and the euro at quarter-end was 147 and 78 per cent respectively.