A payments bank's outgoing payments leave in the morning and its receipts arrive in the afternoon. It ends every day in surplus. Map its intraday position, find the peak shortfall and fix it.

Ravisto's position bottoms at minus Rs 1,200 crore at noon, a shortfall of Rs 800 crore after its Rs 400 crore buffer, even though it ends the day Rs 50 crore up. The buffer runs out at about 10:34. Moving the Rs 500 crore noon batch after 2 pm cuts the shortfall to Rs 300 crore, and intraday credit against government securities can cover the rest.

Think of a shop that pays its suppliers in cash every morning and receives its card sales in the afternoon. It can end every day in profit and still be unable to pay the morning delivery if the till is empty at ten. Payment systems settle one payment at a time, in real time, so a bank needs the cash when each payment leaves, not on average over the day. This is intraday liquidity riskThe risk that a bank cannot make a payment at the moment it is due, even if the day nets to a surplus., and the end-of-day figure is blind to it.

Add the flows in order. By 11 am Ravisto is minus Rs 700 crore; by noon minus Rs 1,200 crore. The Rs 300 crore of midday receipts bring it to minus Rs 900 crore at 2 pm, and the afternoon Rs 950 crore takes it to plus Rs 50 crore at close. With Rs 400 crore of buffer, Ravisto runs out at about 10:34 and is Rs 800 crore short at noon. Payments queue, merchants are not paid on time, and if the queue is not cleared, the bank has failed to settle.

Start with timing, because it is free. If the Rs 500 crore noon batch can wait until after 2 pm, the low improves from minus Rs 1,200 crore to minus Rs 700 crore and the shortfall falls to Rs 300 crore. That batch must be payments that can legally and commercially wait, such as scheduled merchant settlements, not customer transfers promised in real time. The remaining Rs 300 crore can come from intraday credit against government securities, so Ravisto needs at least that much eligible collateral, after haircuts, unencumbered each morning.

Then stress the inflows, because they are concentrated. If the Rs 950 crore from the two acquirers slips past the settlement cut-off, Ravisto closes at minus Rs 500 crore after its buffer, an overnight problem, not an intraday one. Ask the acquirers to settle earlier or in tranches, monitor the position in real time against an internal trigger, and report the daily peak usage to the asset-liability committee. The limitation: the even-flow assumption smooths the day, and real payment traffic comes in bursts that make the peak worse.