Any item that carries a risk of financial loss (and its corresponding revenue generation or profit making potential). An exposure represents the amount of money that an entity (as an investor) could lose, stands ready to lose, on an investment against the potential, desired benefits from its involvement with it. Exposures may result from on-balance sheet or off-balance sheet items. Examples of off-balance sheet (OBS) exposures include the undrawn portion of credit and liquidity facilities, guarantees, letters of credit (L/C), trade finance obligations, and non-contractual obligations.

These items may lead to significant funding requirements over a time horizon of one year. For banks and financial institutions, required stable funding (RSF) factors are usually assigned to OBS exposures and take the OBS exposures into account in the NSFR calculation.