Banking / Finance

Bank for International Settlements

Find select BIS publications and a frequently updated list of Central Banks on the Web.

Bank Holding Company Act on Cornell LII

Read this federal law as codified. For more information, see FDIC Bank Holding Company Act at the Web site of the FDIC.

bankrate.com

Intelligent Life Corp. offers this site, formerly known as Bank Rate Monitor. It provides financial data, industry news and commentary. Find today's averages for mortgage rates, auto loans, savings deposits and personal loans. High Five reveals the "best" deals on interest rates around the country.

Beige Book, The

Published 8 times per year, the Federal Reserve Bank offers "anecdotal information on current economic conditions in its District through reports from Bank and Branch directors and interviews with key business contacts, economists, market experts, and other sources. The Beige Book summarizes this information by District and sector."

Community Reinvestment Act (Cornell LII)

Read this federal law as codified. For more information, see the Community Reinvestment Act Web site of the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FFIEC).

Community Reinvestment Act (FFIEC)

The Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FFIEC) offers information about Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) lending activity. The CRA "is intended to encourage depository institutions to help meet the credit needs of the communities in which they operate." Obtain statistics about small business or small farm loans or community development lending by county, metropolitan statistical area (MSA) or financial institution. Also find CRA ratings and reports. The site provides a search engine.

Compliance Headquarters

Bankers Systems, Inc., a Wolters Kluwer company, offers information about compliance issues in lending (consumer and commercial), residential real estate, deposit, IRA accounts, and privacy. In addition to commentary and quick answers, visitors will find a free federal and state legislative watch service, an email alert service, compliance news, and research links. Those wanting to stay current with compliance issues should check out Compliance Points, which appears under the topical tabs (Lending, Residential Real Estate, Deposits/Ops, IRA, Privacy). Moreover, the legislative watch service also covers relevant federal regulations and city ordinances.

Consumer Price Indexes

The Bureau of Labor Statistics offers Consumer Price Indexes, news releases, reports and fact sheets.

Currency Converters

Find various tools for converting currency including one that converts current exchange rates and one that provides historical data.

Failed Banks

This section of the FDIC's Web site is devoted to information about failed banks. Find a list of failed banks, which starts with bank failures as of 1 October 2000, the latest dividends from failed banks, statistical information on bank and thrift failures since the FDIC was established in 1934, summaries of bank failures from 1991 to the present, information on obtaining a lien release from a failed bank and information on unclaimed funds.

FBI Financial Crimes Report to the Public

The Financial Crimes Section of the FBI reports on crimes against the national and international financial communities. After a brief introduction, sections of the report cover corporate fraud, health care fraud, mortgage fraud, identity theft, insurance fraud, telemarketing fraud and money laundering. The report provides statistics and summaries of key cases.

FDIC Bank Data

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) offers databases containing information about individual banks and the banking industry. Find the status of insured depository institutions, their financial condition and their condition relative to other institutions. Specific databases include the Institution Directory, Call and Thrift Financial Reports, FDIC/OTS Summary of Deposits, Deposit Market Share Report, Trust Institutions Information, Bank and Thrift Rating Services for Consumers, Uniform Bank Performance Reports (UBPR), FDIC Enforcement Decisions and Orders, Final Orders from the Board of Directors, Merger Decisions, FDIC Failed Financial Institution Information and Reports of Changes to Financial Institutions and Offices. Also find applications for profiling the banking industry and analyzing national and regional trends, summaries of financial data and historical studies.

FDIC Institution Directory

The FDIC Institution Directory provides the latest comprehensive financial and demographic data for every FDIC-insured institution, including the most recent quarterly financial statements, with performance and condition ratios. You will find the date the institution was established, the date it was insured, its headquarters location, number of branches and Web site. There are separate search interfaces for easy bank look-up (Bank Find), finding holding companies, finding FDIC insured banks and thrifts and finding branch offices.

FDIC: Regional Economic Conditions

This new database by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation provides statistics "helpful in the analysis of risks facing financial institutions." Select a state, and then a county or MSA (metropolitan statistical area). Then scroll down the page to find the kinds of statistical charts, tables, or maps you can retrieve. Do NOT confuse the shopping cart icons with fee-based information.

Load items of interest into the shopping cart by checking them, and then clicking the appropriate button (add all data/add selected data). Click the "view" button to display the data.

Some of the data available includes personal bankruptcy filings, unemployment rates, home sales, per capita personal income, and mortgage delinquencies.

Fed in Print: An Index to Federal Reserve Economic Research

The Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco offers this database of annotated citations to Federal Reserve publications in print. Many entries include hyperlinks to the publication on the Web. Publications include the Federal Reserve Bulletin, FRB Finance and Economic Discussion Series, FRB of Chicago Emerging Issues, FRB of Dallas Southwest Economy, and more.

Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation as codified (Cornell LII)

Read this federal law as codified. For more information, see FDIC Law, Regulations, Related Acts at the Web site of the FDIC.

Federal Reserve Board Selected Interest Rates

The Federal Reserve Board offers Release H.15 on selected interest rates. It provides daily interest rates for U.S. Treasury and private money market and capital market instruments.

Federal Reserve Economic Data (FRED)

The Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis offers historical U.S. economic and financial data, including daily interest rates, monetary and business indicators, exchange rates, balance of payments and select regional economic data.

Federal Reserve Education

The Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City hosts this educational Web site on economics and personal finance. Teachers and students will find instructional materials and tools that educate about the Federal Reserve, economics and finance. Topics include consumer banking, consumer protection, economics, home ownership and mortgages, interest rates and loans and credit. There is also a history of the Federal Reserve, as well as information about its structure, monetary policy, banking supervision and financial services.

Federal Reserve E-Payments Routing Directory

The Federal Reserve makes available this utility for obtaining information about Fedwire participants. Fedwire is the Federal Reserve Banks' electronic funds transfer network. It "is usually used to transfer large amounts of funds and U.S. government securities from one institution's account at the Federal Reserve to another institution's account." (Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco) You may search for Fedwire participants by name, location or routing number. Results provide the name of the authorized institution, its location, routing number, telegraphic name and eligibility for specific types of transfers.

Federal Reserve System Institution Search

The Federal Reserve enables searching for information about financial institutions. Search by name or location to find basic information, such as the institution's legal name, address and type as well as the regulating agency and parent company. A pull-down menu beneath the institution's basic information lets you display public filings, such as balance sheets, assets and liabilities, income statements and more.

FreeLunch.com

Economy.com, "provider of economic, financial, and industry research" for investors, offers this database of economic and financial statistics. Users must register to retrieve data, but more than 1 million data series are available for downloading, or display, free of charge.

Some of data includes the House Price Index, new non-residential construction, bankruptcies, imports, exports, consumer loans, bank balance sheets, interest rates, unemployment, and more.

Full Universal Currency Converter, The

This Xenon Labs utility converts 180 different currencies from over 250 geographic locations. 

Holding Company Database

Find current, proposed, and Federal Reserve Board (FRB) holding companies. Search by holding company name, location, or other criteria to find holding company name, parent company, address, supervisory region, holding company type, public trade type, and other information. The database is updated daily.

Home Mortgage Disclosure Act

The Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council offers several reports on home mortgage lending and insurance (PMI) activities. Obtain statistics about conventional loans, refinancings, home improvement loans, and more by metropolitan statistical area (MSA) or financial institution. Also find a copy of Regulation C, which requires certain mortgage lenders to disclose data regarding HMDA reportable loans, as well as staff commentary.

Home Owners' Loan Act (Cornell LII)

Read this federal law as codified. This is also the law on savings associations. 

Institution Directory Database

Find institutions regulated by the Office of Thrift Supervision. These include state and federal stock and mutual associations. Search by name, location, assets, or other criteria to find name, address, docket number, officer name, title, and address, charter type, assets, fax number, and other data. The database is updated daily.

Justia Banking and Finance Law Overview

Provides overview of the law as well as links to dockets, legislation, regulations, news and blogs about banking and finance laws.

Language of Money, The

Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Limited offers this searchable financial dictionary. Use English spellings (e.g., securitisation, not securitization) to search for terms or browse the publication alphabetically. Definitions include hyperlinked terms and cross-references and are easy to understand.

Law about Banking (Cornell LII)

Cornell's Legal Information Institute offers a brief summary of U.S. banking law with links to federal banking statutes and regulations, state materials, relevant federal agencies, and other sources.

National Information Center (FFIEC)

Find several databases offering data from Call Reports. Locate individual banks, foreign branches of U.S. banks or U.S. branches of foreign banks, merger and acquisition data, information about bank holding companies, and performance reports.

Privacy and Security Law Blog

The law firm Davis Wright Tremaine LLP, maintains this blog on privacy and security law. Lawyers comment on events in the news and legal developments, such as court decisions and state or federal legislation. The blog has an RSS feed and e-mail alert service for keeping up with new postings. The topics links on the home page take you directly to related commentary. You will also find this subject index in the site map.

State Security Breach Notification Laws

The legislative research librarians at the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) track legislative activity in the 50 states on disclosure requirements related to security breaches involving consumer personal or financial information. The tracking begins in 2002.

Summary of Deposits

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) and the Office of Thrift Supervision (OTS) offers a database containing deposit data for FDIC-insured institutions. Researchers may retrieve data by institution or geographic area. The site also offers pre-defined summaries of certain data; e.g., a statewide summary of all FDIC-insured deposits by county, as well as graphs and charts (e.g., Assets of FDIC-Insured Institutions, 1986-2000).

Twelve Federal Reserve Districts, The

The Federal Reserve Board provides a map of the 12 Federal Reserve districts. Find links to the Web sites of the individual districts as well as their addresses and phone numbers.

Uniform Bank Performance Report (UBPR)

Maintained by the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FFIEC), this portion of the larger FFIEC Web site offers Uniform Bank Performance Reports. These reports reveal "the impact of management decisions and economic conditions on a bank's performance and balance-sheet composition." They shed light on a bank's financial condition. Search by FDIC certificate number, institution name, or other criteria.

World Bank Listing of Ineligible Firms

The World Bank makes available information about companies and individuals ineligible for World Bank-financed contracts for the specified periods. Those on the list were found to have violated the fraud and corruption provisions of certain World Bank guidelines. The list appears in reverse chronological order by the effective date of the ineligibility period, and not alphabetically by the name of the sanctioned individual or company. At the end of the list appears the names of those who have received letters of reprimand, but who remain eligible for financing.