Bank customers may have to pay for better liquidity, says Guy Debelle "One would expect to see an increase in the cost to the customer of obtaining that liquidity service": RBA assistant governor Guy Debelle. Bank customers could bear the brunt of funding tough new international rules imposed after the financial crisis, the Reserve Bank says. "Hence, one would expect to see an increase in the cost to the customer of obtaining that liquidity service," Dr Debelle said in a speech to the Australasian Finance and Banking Conference in Sydney. Dr Debelle said the current rate of return on at-call accounts did not sufficiently reflect the cost incurred by banks from the need to provide such liquidity. He added that financial institutions could wait until the last possible day to reprice their products given that moving first could see them lose customers. "Maybe we will have to wait for 31 December 2014 for this to occur, as there is potentially a large first-mover disadvantage from being the first to reprice the product," he said. The lower interest rate is likely to see customers move rapidly to a competitor who has yet to reprice. The Basel 3 requirements were brought in to strengthen the global banking system after the financial crisis exposed the instability in financial institutions' funding structures. Dr Debelle added that the superannuation sector needed to be just as conscious as the banking sector of the need to manage their liquidity. "These liquidity management issues are very similar to those facing a bank," Dr Debelle said. I think many of the principles of liquidity management translate from the banking sector to the super sector, although I have the sense that this is not yet fully appreciated.