Branch Count Data

The source for branch count data will remain the same for all periods up to and including September 2007.  Beginning in the December 2007 period, NIC will be the source for branch count data.  This could cause changes in peer groups that rely on branch counts for the calculation of peer group membership (peer group numbers 4 through 15), as well as selected ratios and the branch counts noted on the report.

• Foreign branches are identified differently in NIC than in the legacy system as well, but they are not used in peer memberships.  This number is simply displayed on the page. 

Puerto Rico

Puerto Rico is defined by the FDIC’s structure data source as “foreign”, while the NIC defines it as “domestic”.  This change could affect small banks in small peer groups.  In addition, banks in Puerto Rico will begin to show the possession of domestic branches where formerly they did not.

Bankers Banks

Defined differently between the two structure systems.  Six banks that have previously been defined in a commercial bank peer group will be moved into the bankers bank peer group.

Peer Group Membership

There may be differences in peer group membership either because some data elements in NIC are more precise or because some data elements in NIC may have slightly different definitions.  Examples could include financial institutions identified as bankers banks, noninsured trust companies, credit card banks and FDIC supervised savings banks.  Additionally, the frequency of updates to information about metropolitan statistical codes and branch counts may result in questions about peer group assignment.  Finally, there may be slight differences in Specialty Peer Group membership due to the use of the Federal Reserve Board National Information System data in the new CDR UBPR process. The legacy UBPR system used alternative data sources that were not as precise.

Ranking

Ranks may be different because of more precise values calculated in CDR UBPR.  This happens most frequently in skewed distributions where values are highly clustered to one tail.

Ratios

When production of UBPR data is converted to the CDR system many internal computations will be taken to a greater level of precision.  This greater precision will result in some dollar values on the UBPR changing.  The change will improve the accuracy of UBPR data slightly. 

The ratios that will appear on the CDR UBPR will continue to be rounded to two decimal places.  However, differences in the rounding of interim calculated values (calculated values that are used to calculate other values) between the CDR and the legacy system could cause differences in final ratio values that appear on the UBPR.  While the legacy system rounds all interim values to two decimal places, the CDR will not round interim values (i.e., the values will be allowed to “float”), which should ultimately result in more precise ratio calculations.  In particular, this issue can have an impact on ratios that use the tax equivalency adjustment. 

Example:
A bank that reports $1,704m tax exempt income and $11m nondeductible interest expense.  Under the old UBPR system, a tax benefit of $880m would have been computed compared to $872m in the new UBPR system.  When those values are carried forward to UBPR ratios such as Interest Income (TE) as % of Average Assets the rounded ratio remains at 3.13% in both the old and new UBPR system.

Uninsured Trust Companies

The CDR UBPR will contain new information based on approximately 90 noninsured trust companies.

• The CDR UBPR will compute a UBPR for the noninsured trust companies.  This data was not available previously and will be available for all quarters for which the bank has filed Call Report data.
• The CDR UBPR will create a new peer group that will be based on the noninsured trust companies.  This peer group will be displayed on individual bank UBPRs as well as the various UBPR statistical reports.

Use of Zeroes or Null Values

For a few dollar values, the legacy system forced the use of zeros when institutions didn’t report values.  CDR recognizes these values as null, which is more accurate.  The new UBPR will indicate that these items are not reported instead of zero, which will be consistent with the data values in the corresponding Call Report. 

Example:
Foreign Office Deposits as a percent of average assets in the balance sheet on UBPR page 6.  Most banks do not have deposits in foreign offices and are not requested by the banking regulators to report that information.  In the old UBPR that ratio would show as a zero.  In the new UBPR system that ratio will show as N/A or null. 

Page Presentations

The organization of the new CDR UBPR page presentations available to the public will change.  A common page layout will be created within the CDR and will be used across all UBPR reports, including the UBPR Bank Report (standard and custom), Peer Group Report and State Average Report (including the Distribution Reports).  In a few instances where there were minor differences in the ratios used across the reports, these ratios have been synchronized to facilitate the creation of a common page layout. Specific changes to note in the reports include the following:

Bank Report – to accommodate the common page layout approach, the dollar values on the Bank Report were consistently moved to the bottom of the report.

Peer Group Average and Distribution Reports – these reports will now follow the same layout as the Bank Report.

State Average and Distribution Reports – these reports have been expanded to reflect the same layout as the Bank Report; however, the last three columns (averages by three asset sizes) have been eliminated.

State Average