WorkflowRisk Management & ALM

Contingency Funding Plan

A contingency funding plan for banks that is tested, not assumed: agents run each line's live test and count every pledged loan, and the Treasurer approves every step that moves money

A plan that works on the day it is needed, with every line tested and every loan counted.

See one case, screen by screen ↓
demo48minfrom request to funds in the bank's annual discount window test, against a 2-hour target, every step cited to its record
demo$212.0Mof lendable value on 61 pledged loans the Reserve Bank would reject, found by checking all 4,900 pledged loans one by one
demo1.20xcombined stress coverage once those loans are taken out, under the board's 1.25x floor; the plan had reported 1.56x
target100%of pledged loans counted at the lendable value the lender would accept, failures found before the day they are needed
In short

What is Contingency Funding Plan?

A contingency funding plan for banks (CFP) sets out where a bank would borrow if deposits ran, how much each source would give, how it is tested, and when the bank escalates. Contingency Funding Plan keeps that plan current and tested: agents run each source's live test step by step, count every pledged loan at the value the lender would accept, rerun the stress scenarios and draft the next CFP version. The analyst prepares, the CFO checks every borrowing request, the Treasurer approves every money step, and ALCO approves the plan.

AI use cases in banking: a buyer's guide to agentic AI for bank and credit union operations →

Updated

The problem

Why a contingency funding plan for banks adds up on paper and fails on the day

A contingency funding plan for banks adds up where the bank would borrow if deposits ran: the Federal Reserve discount window, FHLB advances, fed funds lines, brokered deposits, a securities repo line and its own cash. On paper the total is reassuring. On the day it is needed, it is only as good as three things nobody checks between exams: whether the people on the authorization list can still borrow, whether each line actually answers, and whether the loans pledged behind it would be accepted.

Loans downgraded at the risk rating review, loans 30 days past due and loans whose recorded mortgage was never imaged stay in the capacity table until the lender refuses them. A test borrowing leaves an email chain, a phone call to the credit desk and a printed wire confirmation, and a finding from the test is written into the ALCO minutes and fixed months later, while the stress scenarios keep counting the capacity that failed. Since July 28, 2023 the agencies expect every bank and credit union to test its contingency borrowing lines regularly, and to consider small test transactions at the discount window.

typical30daysit may take the Reserve Bank to approve borrower-in-custody loan collateral for the first time: readiness cannot wait for the crisis
demo18%of the contingent capacity at the bank in the working solution stood on pledged loans the lender would refuse
demo1of 3fed funds lines at that bank did not answer their last test: the desk contact on file had left
Where the hours of one live line test and plan update goestimated
By hand29.5 hours
With the solution3.5 hours
  • Writing the test memo and the borrowing request6 → 0.5 h
  • Checking the authorization list, credentials and desk contacts4 → 0.2 h
  • Watching the reserve account for the funds and the repayment1.5 → 0.1 h
  • Booking the borrowing and repayment, filing the confirmations2 → 0.2 h
  • Checking pledged collateral against the lender's rules8 → 1 h
  • Writing the ALCO note and updating the capacity table8 → 1.5 h

Estimated split of the treasury team's hours for one annual discount window test, the collateral check behind it and the plan update, by hand and with the agents. Our arithmetic, kept modest; the working solution records the real times on its audit trail.

How it works

How a test becomes a better plan

Six agents test, count, stress and rewrite the plan; the analyst prepares, the CFO checks, the Treasurer approves every money step, ALCO approves the plan.

What comes in
Plan and records in6 sources, 4,900 pledged loans · plan, collateral, loan subledger, payments hub, ledger, imaging
Agents at work
Drill agentthe live test, step by step
Readiness agentpeople, credentials, contacts
Then
Collateral agentcapacity loan by loan
Then
Stress agentthree scenarios, the floor
Early warning agentproposes the stage
Then
After-action agentthe CFP redline
A person decides
Analyst, CFO, Treasurer, ALCOthe analyst prepares · the CFO checks · the Treasurer approves every money step · ALCO approves the plan
What comes out
A live test, every step on record
Capacity the lender would accept
CFP update and examiner pack
One case, step by step

One discount window test, from the draft request to a better contingency funding plan

Tuesday, October 20, 2026, at Tessaly Community Bank, a fictional $3.4 billion community bank with 41 branches. Its plan counts $1,180.0M of contingent capacity across six sources, and today is the discount window's annual live test, drill DRL-2026-07. Here is the day, screen by screen in the working solution.

  1. 01Morning

    The plan opens on its next test, laid out as a drill

    Renata Sorensen · Treasurer

    The first line reads "Contingent capacity $1.18B, last full test June 2026." The six funding sources run down the left with their capacity and last test: the discount window $486.0M, FHLB advances $412.0M, fed funds lines $85.0M with one line that failed on September 15, brokered deposits $120.0M, the repo line $45.0M and the cash buffer $32.0M. On the right, the drill is a stopwatch list that is waiting for her.

    "The test borrowing is waiting for your approval — $5,000,000.00 overnight at the discount window. Dale Pruitt, CFO, checked it at 9:03 a.m."

  2. 028:41 to 9:03 a.m.

    A borrowing request drafted from the plan, every field cited

    Drill agent

    The Drill agent drafted a $5,000,000.00 overnight primary credit request from CFP §7.2, repayable Wednesday, October 21, at the day's primary credit rate of 4.00%, with $486.0M of lendable collateral pledged, 97 times the amount. The Readiness agent confirmed that Malik Osei is on the authorization list and that his FedLine credential is current to January 14, 2027. Malik prepared it at 8:47, and Dale Pruitt, CFO, checked it at 9:03.

    Dale Pruitt's check: "Amount, term and collateral match CFP §7.2."

  3. 039:12 a.m.

    No money moves until the Treasurer approves, with a reason

    Renata Sorensen · Treasurer

    The approval restates the money step: $5,000,000.00 overnight from the discount window, prepared by Malik Osei, checked by Dale Pruitt. Renata picks the reason code "Annual live test, CFP §7.2" and releases it. Had she prepared the request herself, the screen would not let her approve it.

    The Drill agent never sends a request or moves money. It stops for the CFO's check and the Treasurer's approval.

  4. 0448 minutes later

    Sent at 9:14, funded at 10:02, repaid the next morning

    Drill agent

    Malik sends the request through Discount Window Direct at 9:14. The Reserve Bank approves the advance at 9:21, the Drill agent sees the funds arrive in the payments hub at 10:02 and the journal posted to the general ledger at 10:04. Request to funds: 48 minutes 13 seconds against a 2-hour target. On Wednesday at 9:36 a.m. it confirms the repayment of $5,000,547.95.

    Every step carries its record: the advance, payments hub records PH-26-1020-04418 and PH-26-1021-00932, journal JE-26-10-2207.

  5. 05Then

    Borrowing capacity counted the way the lender would count it

    Collateral agent

    The test proves the line answers. The Collateral agent then checks what stands behind it: 1,640 borrower-in-custody loans, 3,260 FHLB-listed loans and 43 securities positions, with haircut table v2026.2, each loan's risk rating, payment status and imaged documents. It finds 9 loans downgraded to special mention at the September 30 review, 5 loans 30 or more days past due and 47 loans missing a recorded mortgage, a note copy, or an assignment or UCC search.

    "61 pledged loans would be rejected: $212.0M of lendable value. Discount window capacity falls from $486.0M to $274.0M."

  6. 06One loan

    Why one loan would be refused, each fact cited to its system

    Collateral agent

    Loan CRE-418281, Bellmont Self Storage LLC, is rated 4, pass/watch, in the loan subledger and current in the core banking system, and its note, assignment, appraisal and first lien check out. Its recorded mortgage is not in document imaging, so its $6,396,000.00 of lendable value should not be counted until it is imaged. The fix is to find or request the document, and a second person checks it.

    Recorded mortgage: "Not found — searched by loan number and by parcel 07-114-220."

  7. 07The fix list

    61 loans, each with its reason, fix, owner and date

    Bea Tran · Collateral Manager

    Bea owns the list: $318.3M of principal, $212.0M of lendable value. She filters by reason, searches by loan number, borrower or town, and requests the 47 missing documents in one action, due November 20. The 14 that cannot be fixed are withdrawn from the listing by November 6, and each withdrawal waits for the Treasurer's approval.

  8. 08At once

    The stress scenarios rerun against the new capacity

    Stress agent

    The plan's three 30-day scenarios are counted again. The bank-specific run falls from 2.37x to 1.85x and the market-wide disruption from 4.19x to 3.30x. The combined severe case, a $596.0M need, falls from 1.56x to 1.20x, under the board's 1.25x floor. An interim pledge of $55.1M of lendable securities would bring it back to 1.30x.

    "Combined severe falls to 1.20x, under the board's 1.25x floor. The Early warning agent has proposed Stage 1."

  9. 09Same day

    Two indicators amber: Stage 1 proposed, the Treasurer decides

    Early warning agent

    Of the eight early warning indicators, two are now amber: combined coverage at 1.20x, and fed funds lines that answered, 2 of 3. The agent proposes Stage 1, Heightened monitoring, with the plan's own actions: the liquidity working group twice a week, a daily report to the CFO and the CEO, the interim pledge prepared, and ALCO told on November 4. Renata approves or declines it with a reason.

    The Early warning agent proposes only. It never changes a stage.

  10. 10For ALCO

    The findings written into CFP v4.3, for approval

    After-action agent

    The After-action agent drafts five findings with owners and dates and a redline of exactly what changes: discount window capacity from $486.0M to $274.0M, contingent capacity from $1,180.0M to $968.0M ($1,023.1M with the interim pledge), the test log and an action register. Malik prepares the update; Renata approves the $58.0M interim pledge and the update before it goes to ALCO on Wednesday, November 4.

    "Malik Osei has prepared the update. It needs your approval before it goes to ALCO, and so does the interim pledge."

Who it’s for

Built for the people who answer for the bank's backup funding.

The same discount window test, seen by the five people who carry it: what the annual test looked like, and what it looks like now.

RS
Renata SorensenTreasurer · approves every money step, pledge change, stage change and plan update
Treasurer
Before
Signs a capacity table built from collateral report totals, and hears about a failed line or a refused loan at the next ALCO.
Now
Sees each request the way the lender will, approves it with a reason code, and gets the stage proposal and the CFP redline the same day a finding lands.
MO
Malik OseiTreasury Analyst · prepares the tests, requests and plan updates
Treasury Analyst
Before
Writes the test memo, phones the credit desk, refreshes the reserve account for an hour and prints confirmations for the ALCO note.
Now
Reviews a request the Drill agent drafted and cited, submits it, and finds every step of the test already timestamped with its record.
DP
Dale PruittChief Financial Officer · checks every borrowing request; chairs ALCO
Chief Financial Officer
Before
Checks a borrowing request from an email and a memo, without the collateral behind it in view.
Now
Checks amount, term and collateral against CFP §7.2 on one screen, every field cited, before the Treasurer can approve.
IC
Ines CalderChief Risk Officer · votes on the plan; owns the liquidity risk appetite
Chief Risk Officer, ALCO member
Before
Is asked to approve a coverage ratio she cannot trace back to the loans behind it.
Now
Opens each scenario's assumptions and the haircut table behind capacity, and sees coverage against the board's floor before she votes.
BT
Bea TranCollateral Manager, loan operations · keeps 4,900 pledged loans eligible
Collateral Manager
Before
Reconciles pledged collateral to the Reserve Bank's statement once a quarter, in totals, and learns of a missing document when a loan is refused.
Now
Works a fix list of 61 loans, each with its reason, the missing page and a due date, and requests documents in bulk.
Built on the engine

6 agents. Each with one job, and hard limits.

Six agents test, count, stress and rewrite the plan; the analyst prepares, the CFO checks, the Treasurer approves every money step, ALCO approves the plan.

Drill agent

Plans each funding source's annual live test from CFP §7.2 and runs it step by step: drafts the borrowing request, watches the payments hub for the funds and the repayment, checks the general ledger posting and timestamps every step with its record.

  • Never sends a request or moves money
  • Stops for the CFO's check and the Treasurer's approval
  • Escalates any step that misses its window
Readiness agent

Keeps the operational details behind every line current: the Reserve Bank authorization list, who can sign in to Discount Window Direct and when each credential expires, counterparty desk contacts and cut-off times.

  • Never edits the authorization list
  • Flags a change for a person to make
Collateral agent

Recomputes lendable value for every pledged loan and security with each lender's haircut, and checks each loan is pass-rated, current and has its documents imaged, listing every loan that would fail with the reason and the fix.

  • Never changes a pledge or a listing
  • Never marks a loan fixed
  • Confidence under 0.90 goes to a person
Stress agent

Reruns the plan's three 30-day scenarios against counted capacity after every change, and measures coverage against the board's floor.

  • Never changes an assumption or a floor
Early warning agent

Reads the eight early warning indicators every day against their amber and red thresholds, and proposes a stage change with the actions the plan sets for that stage.

  • Never changes a stage; it proposes only
  • Stage 1 goes to the Treasurer; Stages 2 and 3 need the CFO
After-action agent

Writes the findings from each test, with owners and dates, into the next CFP version as a redline of the capacity table, the scenario results and the test log, and drafts the ALCO summary.

  • Never approves
  • Never closes a finding without its evidence
Analyst, CFO, Treasurer, ALCO

Prepares · checks · approves money · approves the plan. The agents propose; a named person decides.

Ask in plain words

Ask about any source, drill step, loan or scenario

The Treasurer, the analyst and ALCO ask in plain words. Every answer cites its record and opens the screen to act on; anything it drafts still goes for approval.

Why would the Reserve Bank reject 61 of our pledged loans?

Each fails one of the borrower-in-custody rules: 47 are missing a document in imaging (22 recorded mortgages, 14 note copies, 11 assignments or UCC searches), $171.4M lendable; 9 were downgraded to special mention at the September 30 review, $28.9M; 5 are 30 or more days past due, $11.7M. Together $212.0M of lendable value. Bea Tran owns the fix list.

Are we covered if uninsured deposits run for 30 days?

In the bank-specific run, 25% of uninsured deposits gone in 30 days, the need is $412.0M and counted capacity $763.0M: 1.85x. The combined severe case is the tight one: 1.20x, under the 1.25x floor, since the collateral check. The $58.0M interim pledge brings it to 1.30x.

What does the 2023 addendum ask us to test?

To "regularly test any contingency borrowing lines" so staff know how to use them and they "function as envisioned"; for the discount window, "small value transactions at regular intervals"; and to plan for "the operational challenges involved in moving and posting collateral". Our plan answers with one live test per source per year, a full test each June and stress every quarter.

Draft the ALCO summary of today's drill

A $5,000,000.00 overnight primary credit advance was requested at 9:14 a.m. and funded at 10:02 a.m., 48 minutes against a 2-hour target, and repaid with $547.95 of interest the next morning. A loan-by-loan collateral check then found $212.0M of pledged commercial real estate loans the Reserve Bank would reject, taking contingent capacity from $1,180.0M to $968.0M and combined coverage to 1.20x. Proposed: a $58.0M interim securities pledge (1.30x), a fix list of 61 loans due November 20, Stage 1 monitoring, and CFP v4.3.

Every screen

The working solution, as it ships.

13 screens from the working solution, on its sample data. Pick one to see it large.

The plan, laid out as a drillThe contingency funding plan's home screen: contingent capacity $1.18B and the last full test, the six funding sources with their capacity and last live test, and the discount window test running as a stopwatch.
The test borrowing requestA $5,000,000.00 overnight discount window borrowing request drafted from CFP §7.2, every field cited, with the analyst who prepared it, the CFO's check and the Treasurer's approval still waiting.
The Treasurer approves the money stepThe approval restates the request and its maker and checker, and asks for a reason code before anything is released.
A live test, timed and citedContingency funding plan testing as evidence: sent at 9:14, funded at 10:02, posted at 10:04 and repaid the next morning, each step with its payments hub, general ledger or Discount Window Direct record.
Borrowing capacity, loan by loanDiscount window collateral eligibility checked for every pledged loan, with the haircut table, ratings, payment status and documents, and capacity by source before and after.
Loans the lender would refuse61 commercial real estate loans, $212.0M of lendable value, grouped by reason: missing documents, no longer pass-rated, 30 or more days past due.
The fix listEvery loan to fix or withdraw with its reason, fix, owner and due date, with filters, search and bulk actions for the Collateral Manager.
One loan's eligibilityCheck by check, each fact cited to the system that holds it, the haircut and lendable value, and the agent's conclusion with its confidence.
Liquidity stress testing, rerun at onceThe three 30-day scenarios against the new capacity: combined coverage falls from 1.56x to 1.20x, under the board's 1.25x floor, with each scenario's assumptions underneath.
Early warning indicators and the stageEight liquidity early warning indicators against amber and red thresholds, the four plan stages, and Stage 1 proposed with its actions for the Treasurer to approve or decline.
The CFP updateFive findings with owners and dates, the interim securities pledge waiting for approval, and the redline from CFP v4.2 to v4.3 for the Treasurer and ALCO.
Audit trail and evidence packEvery action by people and agents, and an export for FDIC examiners, the state, the board, ALCO or internal audit, with borrower names masked and a hash.
Agents and modelsEach agent's prompt version, model and confidence threshold, and the reason codes a person gives to override; every change is sent to the Treasurer for approval.
Governance

Prepared by agents, checked and approved by people, on the record.

Every value cites its sourceEach capacity figure, drill step and agent statement opens the passage it came from: the CFP section, the 2023 addendum, the authorization list, payments hub and general ledger records, the loan subledger, document imaging or the haircut table.
Maker, checker, approverThe analyst prepares, the CFO checks every borrowing request and the Treasurer approves every money step, pledge change, withdrawal and stage change with a reason code. ALCO approves each CFP version. A person never approves an item they prepared or checked.
Agents prepare, people decideThe agents never send a borrowing request, move money, change a pledge or a listing, change a stage or an assumption, or close a finding without its evidence. Below its confidence threshold an agent hands the item to a person.
An audit trail nobody can editEvery action by people and agents is recorded with who, what, when, why and the evidence, along with the agent's prompt and model version. Entries cannot be edited or deleted, by anyone.
An evidence pack for examinersInternal audit exports a pack for FDIC examiners, the state banking department, the board, ALCO or internal audit: the drill with every record, the collateral check, the stress results, the CFP redline and approvals, with a SHA-256 hash.
Need-to-know by defaultBorrower names are masked outside treasury and loan operations, account and routing numbers are masked in exports, and drill and CFP records are kept seven years. Nothing in the solution reaches a customer.
Configuration

Your plan, your floors, your tests

Sources, haircuts, scenarios, stages and agent thresholds are settings. The administrator proposes a change; the Treasurer approves it before it applies, and it is on the audit trail.

SettingDefaultChoose from
Live test per sourceOnce a year: discount window $5,000,000, FHLB $10,000,000, fed funds $2,000,000 on each line, brokered $1,000,000, repo $5,000,000Frequency and test amount per source; the cash buffer is checked daily
Test targetDiscount window funds within 2 hours; fed funds within 60 minutesPer source: same business day for FHLB and repo, within 3 business days for brokered deposits
Collateral haircut tablev2026.2, effective July 1, 2026v2026.2 (current) · v2026.1, January 1 – June 30, 2026
Eligibility rulesPass-rated (risk rating 1–4), under 30 days past due, note, recorded mortgage and assignment or UCC search imaged, first lienPer collateral type and lender
Coverage floor1.25x amber · 1.10x redSet by the board; a change goes to the Treasurer for approval
Stage 1, Heightened monitoringTwo indicators amber, or one red for a dayStages 0 to 3 with their actions; Stage 2 needs two red, Stage 3 is declared by ALCO
Agent confidence thresholdsDrill 0.95 · Collateral 0.90 · Early warning 0.92 · After-action 0.90 · Readiness 0.95Per agent; below it the item goes to a person, and overrides need a reason code
Data and privacyBorrower names masked outside treasury and loan operations; records kept 7 yearsEach on or off; never shorter than the 5-year Bank Secrecy Act record rule for customer data
Connections

Works with the systems a contingency funding plan already runs on

Payments hubFedwire credits and debits, live: the funds arriving and the repayment leaving
General ledger and investment accountingjournals for every test borrowing, and the securities positions available to pledge
Collateral management systempledge listings for the Reserve Bank and the FHLB, 4,900 loans
Core banking system and loan subledgerpayment status, risk ratings and balances for every pledged loan, and deposit data for the indicators
Document imagingloan files and the Reserve Bank lending agreements, searched for each required document
Discount Window Direct and the FHLB member portaladvance confirmations, read-only, and daily collateral statements
What it changes

The difference, in numbers.

Every figure is labelled: a target the solution is built to, an estimate, a typical published result, or a proven one.

target
Everysource
tested live once a year, each step timestamped and cited to its record
6 funding sources
one live test each, every year
target
Everypledged loan
counted at the lendable value the lender would accept, with failures found before the day
target
Sameday
from a finding to a proposed stage change and a CFP redline, instead of the next quarterly ALCO
Todaynext quarterly ALCO
With agentssame day

Sources: OCC Bulletin 2023-25, Addendum to the Interagency Policy Statement on Funding and Liquidity Risk Management: Importance of Contingency Funding Plans, July 28, 2023 (also published by the Federal Reserve, the FDIC and the NCUA) · Federal Reserve, Community Banking Connections, "Five Steps to Discount Window Borrowing", 2024 (initial borrower-in-custody approval may take up to 30 days) · NCUA, 12 CFR 741.12. "demo" = seen in the working solution, on its sample data · "target" = design goal, measured in the live solution · "typical" = published figures · "estimated" = our arithmetic, kept modest. The bank, its counterparties, borrowers, loans and records and the people named on this page are fictional: characters and sample data in the working solution.

Questions

What treasurers ask about a contingency funding plan for banks.

What is a contingency funding plan for banks?

A contingency funding plan for banks (CFP) sets out where a bank would borrow if deposits ran, how much each source would give, how it is tested, and when the bank escalates. Contingency Funding Plan keeps that plan current and tested: agents run each source's live test step by step, count every pledged loan at the value the lender would accept, rerun the stress scenarios and draft the next CFP version. The analyst prepares, the CFO checks every borrowing request, the Treasurer approves every money step, and ALCO approves the plan.

How does it test the discount window and the other contingency lines?

Each source gets one live test a year, set in the plan. The Drill agent drafts the test request from the plan, the Readiness agent checks the authorization list and credentials, and after the CFO's check and the Treasurer's approval a person sends it. The agent then watches the payments hub for the funds, checks the general ledger posting and confirms the repayment, so every step lands with its time and its record.

How does it check discount window collateral eligibility and haircuts?

The Collateral agent reads every pledged loan and security, applies the lender's haircut from the current table, and checks that each loan is pass-rated, current and has its note, recorded mortgage and assignment or UCC search imaged. Loans that would fail are listed with the reason, the fix, an owner and a date, and capacity is shown before and after.

What does the 2023 interagency addendum ask banks to do?

The July 28, 2023 addendum to the interagency policy statement on funding and liquidity risk management says institutions should regularly test their contingency borrowing lines, and that those with the discount window in their plan should consider small value transactions at regular intervals. It also asks them to plan for the work of moving and posting collateral, and to recognize that lines may become unavailable in stress.

Can credit unions use it?

The working solution is shown at a community bank. Federally insured credit unions also keep a contingency funding plan under NCUA's rule at 12 CFR 741.12, and the funding sources, test amounts and targets, scenarios and stages are settings, so the same tests, checks and approvals apply.

Does the AI move money or change our pledges?

No. The agents draft, watch, count and propose. They never send a borrowing request, move money, change a pledge or a listing, change a stage or close a finding without its evidence.

Do people stay in control?

Yes. The analyst prepares, the CFO checks every borrowing request, and the Treasurer approves every money step, pledge change, loan withdrawal and stage change with a reason code; ALCO approves each plan version. No one approves an item they prepared, and every decision is on an audit trail that internal audit can export.

How long does it take to go live?

The Agentic Solution Engine builds and deploys it from your requirements and documents: your contingency funding plan, pledge listings, haircut tables, scenarios and feeds from your core, payments hub and general ledger. It goes live once every quality gate has passed. We will walk you through it on your own plan and last test first.

See it on
your own plan.

We'll run Contingency Funding Plan on your plan, your pledge listings and your last line test, and show you the capacity behind each source.