Data Methodology

How BranchScout sources, processes, and scores bank branch sale-leaseback opportunities

A. Data Sources

BranchScout ingests data from 6 sources — federal regulatory agencies and state property databases. Each source is processed independently, then normalized to the branch level and linked by institution certificate number (FDIC cert / NCUA charter).

FDIC Call ReportsQuarterly

4,577 FDIC-insured banks

·Tier-1 capital ratio
·NPL ratio
·Efficiency ratio
·Total loans
·Return on assets

FDIC Summary of DepositsAnnual

All branch locations of FDIC-insured banks

·Branch deposits
·Deposit share
·Market rank by county

FDIC Regulatory & HistoryAs updated

All FDIC-insured institutions

·CRA rating (from FFIEC)
·Formal enforcement actions
·Merger and failure history

NCUA Financial DataQuarterly

4,071 federally insured credit unions

·Same financial depth as FDIC
·Separate system, normalized to match FDIC schema

US Census ACSAnnual

All US ZIP codes (ZCTA)

·Median household income
·Total population
·Housing density per ZIP

State Property RecordsOngoing

47 states + DC — ~23,700 branches classified; depth varies by state

·Owned vs. leased classification per branch
·Derived from county ArcGIS parcel databases

All sources are publicly available at no cost. BranchScout does not purchase proprietary data. The value is in the connection: normalizing 6 disparate systems to the branch level, updated automatically when sources publish.

B. Branch Buy Score (BBS)

Every institution receives a Branch Buy Score (BBS) from 0–100. The score is a weighted composite of 7 factors drawn from the ingested data. Factors with no available data are excluded and remaining weights are renormalized to sum to 1.0.

Factor	Default Weight	Source	Scoring Logic
Asset Size	15%	FDIC / NCUA	Ideal range $500M–$5B; linear ramp below, exponential falloff above
Geography	15%	FDIC / NCUA HQ state	Target states score 100; all others score 40; configurable per account
Owned Branch %	20%	State Property Records	Higher % owned = higher score; institutions with <5 branches excluded
Credit Stress	20%	FDIC / NCUA financials	Composite of Tier-1 capital, NPL ratio, efficiency ratio; lower stress = higher score
Competitor Gap	10%	FDIC SOD + NCUA	Deposit market share vs. nearest competitor in each county
Regulatory Standing	10%	FDIC Regulatory & History	CRA rating (Outstanding/Satisfactory/Needs Improvement) + enforcement flag
Branch Size	10%	FDIC SOD + State Records	Branch-level deposits + property sqft where available

🔴Hot (70–100): High deal probability — strong ownership + motivated credit profile

🟡Warm (45–69): Worth monitoring — one or more factors below threshold

⚪Cold (0–44): Low near-term probability — excluded from default views

Default weights are set by BranchScout. Pro subscribers can adjust factor weights in Settings → Scoring to match their acquisition thesis.

C. Update Cadence

BranchScout monitors source publication schedules and triggers score refreshes automatically.

Source	Trigger	Typical Lag
FDIC Call Reports	FDIC publishes quarterly (Mar/Jun/Sep/Dec)	Scores refresh within 48 hours of FDIC publication
FDIC Summary of Deposits	FDIC publishes annually (June)	Scores refresh within 48 hours
FDIC Regulatory & History	Continuous monitoring	Updated within 24 hours of new FFIEC/FDIC postings
NCUA Financial Data	NCUA publishes quarterly	Scores refresh within 48 hours
US Census ACS	Published annually (October)	Refreshed each October
State Property Records	Quarterly re-run per state	Within 7 days of each quarter end

D. Limitations & Disclaimer

Users should be aware of the following constraints when interpreting BranchScout data.

1.Not investment advice. BranchScout scores are research tools. No score or ranking constitutes a recommendation to buy, sell, or lease any property or security.
2.Independent — no government affiliation. BranchScout is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by the FDIC, NCUA, the U.S. Census Bureau, or any government agency. Agency names identify the public-domain data sources only. Credit and regulatory signals are opinions derived from published data, not statements of fact about any institution's current solvency.
3.Coverage gaps. Property ownership data is currently available for a subset of states. Institutions in uncovered states show owned_pct = null and the Owned Branch % factor is excluded from their BBS.
4.Property data — sourcing & attribution. Owned-vs-leased classification is derived from county and state parcel databases, each under its own terms of use. BranchScout publishes only derived flags (owned/leased, owned %), not third-party owner names, and credits each jurisdiction's source. California parcel owner data is excluded per CA Gov. Code §7928.205.
5.Private institutions. BranchScout covers FDIC-insured banks and NCUA-insured credit unions. Privately chartered banks and non-federally-insured institutions are not included.
6.Data accuracy. Source data reflects what regulators have published. Errors in primary filings are not corrected by BranchScout. Always verify against primary source filings before acting.
7.Score lag. Scores reflect the most recently ingested data. There may be a lag between a regulatory event and its appearance in BranchScout.

Questions about methodology: support@beup.space