Frequently asked questions

BankingLens is a research and analytics product built on public FFIEC call-report data. It turns raw quarterly bank filings into peer-benchmarked dashboards (Bank Peer Intel) and matches business loan scenarios to banks already lending in that space (Borrower Assist). Everything is computed from public-domain data — no scraping, no alternative data, no third-party data brokers.

Two audiences. Bank Peer Intel is for analysts, examiners, treasurers, M&A advisors, and competitive-intel teams who need fast peer benchmarks for any of the 4,477 US commercial banks. Borrower Assist is for small businesses, brokers, and CFOs shopping a loan and looking for the banks most likely to say yes.

FFIEC quarterly call reports (every US commercial bank is required to file these), reconciled where possible to the FFIEC's published Uniform Bank Performance Reports (UBPR). That's the entire data source. No scraping, no proprietary data, no alternative data. See the methodology page for details.

Quarterly, with a typical lag of ~30 days from the FFIEC's official release. Banks file 30-60 days after quarter-end, the FFIEC publishes shortly after, and we ingest within ~30 days. So if you're using BankingLens in early September, you'll likely be looking at the Q2 (June 30) filings.

No. BankingLens is operated by Data Clarity LLC and is independent of the FFIEC, FDIC, OCC, Federal Reserve, and CFPB. We use their public data — that's the relationship.

Starter ($29/mo) gives you the full dashboards: peer-benchmark explorer, per-bank scorecards with flags & questions to ask, peer groups, watchlist, and bank comparison up to 3 banks. Pro ($99/mo) adds: CSV exports, saved searches with shareable URLs, free-text notes per bank, compare up to 10 banks side-by-side, print-friendly / save-as-PDF scorecards, and a recently-viewed widget. Full comparison →

Yes. Cancellation takes effect at the end of the current billing period and you keep access until then. No annual contract, no termination fee. If you want a prorated refund within 30 days of starting, email us — we do that no questions asked. Refund policy →

Where possible, headline ratios are reconciled to the FFIEC's Uniform Bank Performance Report (UBPR) — meaning the number you see on BankingLens matches the number an examiner sees. Each bank scorecard surfaces this transparently: "Matches UBPR," "Self-computed (UBPR not yet loaded)," or "UBPR mismatch." When we can't reconcile, we show both values rather than picking one. What is UBPR? →

Yes — on Pro. CSV export is available on the bank explorer (respects your current filters), the watchlist (whole list including your notes), and the comparison view (metrics × banks matrix). Files include idrssd, name, location, asset band, total assets, ROA, NIM, Tier 1, peer percentiles, and YoY growth. Open in Excel, Sheets, or pipe into your own pipeline.

Yes. The dashboards are responsive with sticky first columns on horizontally-scrolling tables and 44×44 tap targets on action buttons. Designed analyst-first on desktop, but the watchlist, scorecards, and search all work fine on phone.

No hard limit on either tier — the watchlist is stored in your browser's local storage, so it's bounded only by what's reasonable to scan in one view. We've seen users keep 20-50 banks; past that the dedicated watchlist page is more practical than the sidebar. Note that the watchlist is per-browser today — cross-device sync is a planned Pro Plus feature.

A 6-page ranked PDF tailored to your scenario (state, loan type, size, optional industry and collateral). At least 5 high-confidence matches (more when the data supports it), with a 0-97 match score and rationale per bank, bank profile, and a suggested outreach script. Preview a real sample →

Reports are generated on demand and delivered as a PDF download within minutes of payment. If something goes wrong (rare, but it happens), email us within 24 hours and we'll regenerate it or refund -- your call.

Each scenario is a separate $49 report -- different industry, loan size, geography, or collateral usually yields a meaningfully different match list. If you're testing 3+ scenarios, email us about volume pricing.

BankingLens covers US commercial banks only -- the data source (FFIEC call reports) is US-only. If you're looking to borrow from a US bank but you're based abroad, we can still help; if you're looking to borrow from a non-US bank, we can't help yet.

The match list reflects each bank's most recent quarterly filing, refreshed every quarter (typically ~30 days after the FFIEC's official release). For a fast-moving negotiation, a quarter-stale filing is generally good enough -- appetite changes slowly and balance-sheet composition is the primary signal we use.

Yes. Full refund within 7 days if the report fails to generate or has obvious data errors. We can't refund based on "the banks didn't say yes" -- bank decisions involve human factors we don't have visibility into. Refund policy →

All payments are processed by Stripe — we never see or store your card number, CVC, or expiry. Bank Peer Intel is a monthly subscription. Borrower Assist is a one-time charge per report.

Bank Peer Intel: prorated refund within 30 days, no questions asked. Borrower Assist: full refund within 7 days if the report doesn't generate or has data errors. Email hello@bankinglens.com and we'll handle it.

No. Stripe holds and processes all card data; we only ever see a customer ID and the last 4 digits for receipt purposes. Card data never touches our servers. More on data handling →

Sign in, open the billing portal from your account page (it's a Stripe-hosted page), and click "Cancel subscription." Or just email us and we'll do it on your behalf. Either way, your access continues to the end of the current billing period.

Short version: we don't sell your data, we don't use third-party ad trackers, and we don't store payment information. Account state is your email, your subscription status, and (for Pro users) any per-bank notes/watchlist saved client-side. Full policy: /privacy.

FFIEC Call Reports — the quarterly filings every US commercial bank submits. Public domain. Reconciled where possible to the FFIEC's published Uniform Bank Performance Reports (UBPR). No scraping, no alternative data, no third-party brokers. Full methodology →

Asset-band buckets following the FFIEC convention (Under $100M, $100M-$300M, $300M-$1B, $1B-$3B, $3B-$10B, Over $10B). The dashboards also offer coarser bands (Under $1B / $1B-$10B / $10B-$100B / Over $100B) when you want broader comparisons. We don't compare a $400M community bank to JPMorgan — it isn't useful. Peer-group guide →

Bank Peer Intel uses percentile rankings: where does each bank sit within its asset-band peer cohort on ROA, NIM, Tier 1, efficiency, and NPL ratio? Borrower Assist uses a five-signal composite (underweight, growth, LDR room, NIM pressure, credit quality), weighted and normalized to a 0-97 scale — capped intentionally at 97, not 100, because we don't claim certainty. Full breakdown →

Honest list: (1) call reports are quarterly and lag ~30 days behind reality; (2) we don't see loan-level data or specific approval criteria; (3) we don't capture qualitative factors like relationship banking, brand, or recent leadership changes; (4) we don't make credit decisions or rate forecasts; (5) restatements can change a quarter's history retroactively — we track that but it can shift a percentile rank. Full limitations →

Email us with the bank name, FDIC cert or IDRSSD, the filing quarter, and what looks wrong. If it's a FFIEC restatement we already track that — we'll point you to where in the UBPR reconciliation we surface it. If it's an ingestion bug on our end, we'll fix it within 1-2 business days.