L’intermédiaire devra donc mettre en balance ce que lui coûte le maintien d’actifs relativement liquides et ce que lui coûterait la réalisation rapide de biens relativement peu liquides.
On the other hand, maintaining an inadequate stock of liquid capital on hand to meet the demands of a FI’s suppliers of capital may force the FI to dispose of relatively illiquid assets on quite unfavourable terms to the FI. There is then a trade-off to be made by the FI between the cost of holding relatively liquid assets and the cost of having to convert relatively illiquid assets to cash quickly.