CB Clarity is a custom research firm supporting the community banking industry. We turn the same FDIC call reports bank examiners use into clear, defensible analysis — bank quality scoring, M&A deal patterns, and comparable-transaction pricing — for the people who run, buy, sell, and write about community banks. Engagements are custom: you bring the question, we build the answer in days, not quarters.
You bring a question about a bank, a market, or a deal; we build the analysis — like the Florida community-bank scorecard and deal table we produced for the Business Observer. Public data, fast turnaround, defensible enough to publish.
A screened, quality-scored list of acquisition targets that fit your footprint and appetite, with comparable-deal pricing — so you walk into the conversation already knowing the bank.
Where you stand on the metrics that drive deals, what comparable banks have sold for, and who the natural buyers are — an independent read before you talk to an advisor.
Benchmark your bank against real peers, understand how the market would value you, and get independent answers — without a six-figure data subscription.
Screen the full private-bank universe for targets that fit, and benchmark a prospect’s financials against deal comps before signing an NDA.
Know what you’re worth and who’d buy you before you start the conversation — an outside read that’s yours, not an advisor’s pitch.
M&A advisors and PE / family-office entrants use the same data and research.
CB Clarity’s scorecard is built from FDIC call report data — the same source bank examiners use. Each bank is run through three soundness checks against absolute, recognized thresholds: capital (PCA well-capitalized), asset quality (Texas ratio below 100%), and earnings (positive ROA). Pass/fail, not a forced curve — then ranked by return on assets within its loan-mix peer group. We don’t assign a house tier; any tiering is set with the client, per situation.
The checks use the same recognized supervisory lines examiners apply (CAMELS ratings themselves are confidential). On pricing, we present the distribution of comparable transactions — median and range across 190 priced deals from SEC EDGAR proxy statements. Call-report fundamentals don’t predict P/TBV (adj. R² ≈ 0), because deal price reflects franchise, synergies, and competition — so we show comparable deals, not a single-number estimate.
SNL/S&P Market Intelligence covers the same underlying data but is priced for institutional subscribers at $50,000–$100,000 per year. CB Clarity makes that depth accessible to community banks and the people who serve them.
Send a brief note about your bank, firm, or the question you’re working on. I’ll respond within one business day with sample output and pricing.