This Screen is the opening screen for the Bank Competitive Brief and is where the subject Bank is chosen. It is also where the Peer group you would like to compare the subject bank is chosen. Peer groups can be as simple as one bank or as complex as selecting a peer group by matching particular balance sheet and income traits. Also available are pre-built national or state UBPR groups.

The BCB allows you to print any or all pages to Power Point for presentations. This is an example of an opening screen that is available.

Once a peer group is chosen, many comparison screens are available. The Summary screen shows a comparison between the subject bank and the peer group for key ratios. The color of the arrow gives lets the user know which ratios of the subject are worse or better than the peer.

Within the Summary Screen tab is a schedule which displays and shows graphically the strengths or opportunities available to the subject bank by category.

Within the Summary Screen tab is a schedule that compares key ratios of by bank within the peer group. It also shows the impact on the subject bank's ROA if the subject were to achieve the best of each ratio in the group.

The performance tab is the tab that can give the most insight into areas of profit and loss of the subject bank that over or under perform against its peers. The drill down approach allows the user delve deeper into reason for over or under performance. The detail can be analyzed by simply clicking on the item needing further explanation.

This screen is an example of further analysis of a particular income or expense item. In this example the subject bank has lower service charge income than its peers, this digs into the reasons why.

The "Balance Sheet" tab gives an overall comparison by major asset type with its peers. The other items within this tab give you a closer look at reasons for this asset mix and possible ideas for change if desired.

The "Growth" section within the Performance Tab allows you to see growth for your bank compared to growth for the peer group. It gives you an idea on what asset or liability areas other banks are expanding or contracting.

In addition to a help file built into the system, FIRE has a "Links" page which makes it easy to go to an institutions web page, UBPR report, summary of deposits page, and to a Ticker symbol if available. Links are also available for all of the regulatory agencies, to regulatory form pages, and other web pages which might be useful.

The "Risk" tab has several different components. The one shown gives both a graphic and numerical comparison of the subject banks interest rate risk compared to the peer groups interest rate risk.

The maturities section gives more detail of the interest rate risk by type and shows the mismatch by asset and liability type.

Several years ago the OCC developed a bank early warning system (canary ratios). This page shows the items for each ratio with a comparison to the peer group.

The appendix gives the user the ability to download to Excel comparison data for further analysis. Possible downloads include Balance Sheet and Income Statement data along with ratios, yields, costs and a listing of people included in the peer group.