Peer analysis methods

Sources

Every figure comes from a public filing or a regulator's dataset. Open any metric to see its formula and the documents behind it.

Call Report

FDIC BankFind and the FFIEC Call Report. One form with one set of instructions for every insured bank, so charters compare directly.

SEC filings

10-K, 10-Q, XBRL tags and earnings releases filed on 8-K. The holding company's own numbers, and the first to arrive each quarter.

FR Y-9C

The holding company report filed with the Federal Reserve. It carries TD, BMO, UBS, RBC, CIBC and USAA, which have no SEC filings for their US groups, and it checks the SEC figures for everyone else.

FR Y-9LP and FR Y-15

The parent company's own balance sheet, and the yearly systemic risk report that sets regulatory category and feeds the G-SIB score. Firms under $100bn do not file the FR Y-15.

Liquidity disclosures

The LCR and NSFR reports large firms publish on their own sites under Regulation WW. HSBC's cover HSBC North America.

Others

Federal Reserve capital requirements and stress tests, OCC and Federal Reserve enforcement actions, CFPB complaints, OFR systemic scores, HMDA mortgage data, SBA 7(a) loans and FDIC Summary of Deposits.

Banks

The 52 largest US banking groups by insured-charter assets at the latest Call Report date. Charters roll up to their top holder, and a merger after the reporting date rolls into the survivor. US branches of foreign banks are left out because they file no capital or income schedules.

A foreign-owned group is its US holding company. City National reads as RBC US Group and UBS Bank USA as UBS Americas, both wider than the bank itself. USAA reads as the whole USAA group, insurance included. HSBC reads as HSBC USA, its SEC registrant. Zions and Flagstar have no holding company above the bank, so they file no Y-9C.

Bank and holding company

Each metric belongs to one level and says which. The two never mix inside a ratio. A group with several charters adds their dollar lines and recomputes each ratio from the sums. Balances between those charters stay in, because the Call Report does not identify them.

Where a charter is a small part of the firm (Goldman Sachs 36%, Morgan Stanley 40%, Schwab 56%, American Express 69%), bank-level productivity and fee metrics describe the charter, not the firm.

Quarters

Every value sits in one calendar quarter. Income is reported year to date, so a quarter is the year to date less the quarter before it, and the fourth quarter is the full year less nine months. Rates on income are annualized by multiplying by four. Trailing figures add the last four quarters.

The Earnings view runs ahead of the Call Report view. Releases arrive within weeks of quarter end and Call Reports about 50 days after it. A release figure stands until the 10-Q or 10-K replaces it, and the CSV export marks it preliminary until then.

Which number shows

1. A filed number replaces a release number.
2. Otherwise sources apply in the order the metric lists them, and the Y-9C fills what they leave empty.
3. Where a bank's SEC income line normally matches its Y-9C and one quarter is more than 25% away, that quarter's net interest income, noninterest income and expense come from the Y-9C where they tie to it. A misread provision moves only itself. A line on the bank's own definition, such as Goldman's loans, stays on that definition.
4. A missing value prints n/r, not reported. It is never zero, estimated or carried forward past a stated limit. n.m. means not meaningful: a percent change off a zero or negative base, or into a loss, or a change from a figure a merger holds out of rank.

Earnings

Revenue

Net interest income plus noninterest income.

PPNR

Revenue less noninterest expense.

Efficiency

Noninterest expense over revenue.

Fee share

Noninterest income over revenue.

NCO rate

Net charge-offs, annualized, over the average of this quarter's and last quarter's period-end loans.

Provision to NCOs

Provision for credit losses over net charge-offs. Above 1x the bank is adding to reserves.

Comparisons are like for like. A bank enters a median or a rank only if it reported that calendar quarter at holding company level, and a change appears only when both quarters exist for that bank. At each quarter the median reads the selected peers with a value there and needs three, so a trend's line and a chart's bars give one number, and the line breaks only below three.

Comparability

Adjusted metrics sit beside reported ones: NCO rate excluding card, NCO rate and allowance at peer-median mix, NIM excluding trading, repo and cash, AOCI-adjusted CET1 and CET1 fully marked.

Growth across a merger prints with a dagger and stays out of medians and ranks for four quarters. A reorganization inside a group breaks charter lines the same way, under the same mark, and holding company lines not at all. A jump from accounts reclassified between deposit types takes the same mark. FDIC and Call Report yields are not tax-equivalent; earnings release NIM usually is.

Peer statistics

Median

Of the selected peers with a figure that quarter, excluding the subject.

Rank

States its denominator, for example 3 of 12, and counts only banks with a value. Hidden below four peers.

Middle half

The interquartile range of the selected peers.

Direction

Set per metric. Metrics that depend on strategy rank without favorable or adverse color.

Analysis views

Bridge

Splits a gap in ROA or NIM into its lines, in basis points, against the simple mean of the peers, because medians do not add. The lines must sum to the total or the bridge does not show.

Gap value

The gap to the peer median times the rate's own denominator, in annual pre-tax dollars on today's balance sheet. The levers overlap, so there is no total.

Movers

How far a bank's gap to the median moved between two quarters, divided by the spread across peers, so rows in different units share one order.

Suggested peers

3 to 10 peers, each shown with its reasons, and the same every time for the same data. Similarity weights: business archetype 0.24, loan mix 0.20, size 0.15, fee mix 0.10, regulatory category 0.08, deposit franchise 0.08, ownership 0.05, market footprint 0.04, balance sheet shape 0.03, charter share of group 0.03. A bank's own filed proxy peer group adds a boost.

Against filed proxy peer groups across 41 banks, 70% of the top eight match, compared with 55% for size alone and 22% at random. Those same groups informed the weights.

Commentary

Topic shares and stated numeric guidance from earnings releases, investor presentations and first-party transcripts, each linked to its source. A number that does not appear literally in the source passage is discarded. No transcript text is republished.