Call Report: Overview and Examples in Banking

What Is a Call Report?

A call report is a regulatory report that must be filed by banks in the U.S. on a quarterly basis with the FDIC. A call report contains information about the bank's financial health, and by examining multiple call reports it can provide insight regarding the welfare of the U.S. banking system more broadly. Banks that are required to file call reports are national banks, state member banks, and non-member banks.

The call report is officially known as the "Report of Condition and Income" and can also be called the RC report.

Understanding Call Reports

The call report contains items such as the bank's income statement, balance sheet, loan information, deposit information, investment information, changes in the bank's capital, asset sale information and several other sections discussing aspects of the bank's viability. Banks are required to file the call report no later than 30 days after the end of each quarter. The Federal Insurance Deposit Commission (FDIC) is tasked with overseeing compliance with call report filing requirements.

Each bank’s board of directors and senior management are responsible for establishing and maintaining an effective system of internal controls, including controls over the Reports of Condition and Income (the call report). Call reports are to be prepared in accordance with federal regulatory authority instructions and must be signed by the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of the reporting bank (or by the individual performing an equivalent function) and attested to by not less than two directors (trustees) for state nonmember banks and three directors for state member banks, national banks, and savings associations.

The management of the reporting bank may, if it wishes, also submit a brief narrative statement on the amounts reported in the call report. This optional statement will be made available to the public, along with the publicly available data in the Reports of Condition and Income, in response to any request for individual bank report data

Submitting Call Reports

Call reports are required to be submitted to the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FFIEC). The Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council is an interagency entity that coordinates regulatory efforts between the Federal Reserve, the Federal Insurance Deposit Commission (FDIC) and the Office of Thrift Supervision. Banks must use the standardized forms provided by the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council to submit their data and each call report is audited by a Federal Insurance Deposit Commission analyst for errors and audit flags.

These reports are available to the public on the Federal Insurance Deposit Commission website and are a resource to people looking for information regarding the health of the U.S. banking system. Credit unions and thrift institutions are also required to file similar reports with their own regulatory agencies.