An asset that constitutes the most readily available form of monetary assets (i.e., cash or cash equivalents) or any types of assets that can easily be converted into cash. Examples of liquid assets include bank deposits, accounts receivable (A/Rs), highly marketable securities (T-bills), and money market instruments (money-market fund shares).

Systemically liquid assets (SLAs) represent a type of assets (bank assets) whose value is not correlated with the state of the banking or financial system, particularly at the time of stress or crisis. In other words, these assets would remain liquid and serve liquidity requirements under systemic turbulences.

Contrary to liquid assets, illiquid assets such as a real estate, machinery or a business venture cannot be easily and quickly converted into monetary assets. Conversion of such assets into money may come at a huge cost (impact on the selling price and the amount that can be secured from sale, not to mention the time cost involved- the time needed to liquidate the assets.)