A Million Bank Transactions from a Public Dataset
I wanted to try the same data tools on transaction-level records. Mortgage lending data is useful, but the day-to-day activity of a bank lives in its transactions. Deposits, withdrawals, transfers, loan payments. Every client interaction with their account generates a record.
Loans as Assets, Deposits as Liabilities
Schedule RC, the balance sheet section of the public call report, is where a bank lays out what it owns and owes, so I pulled one up to see how it is put together. I've read balance sheets before from my startup days, but a bank's looks different in several ways.
The Quarterly Filing Behind a Bank's Numbers
The call report keeps coming up in any conversation about bank financials. I realized I didn't really know what was in it. So I pulled one up.
The Basics Before Reading a Bank's Books
I've been wanting to dig into bank financial statements, but I kept realizing I was fuzzy on some basics. I've worked with financial statements before, built projections for investors, reviewed monthly P&Ls, tracked cash burn. But that was a while ago, and I never had formal accounting training. So before jumping into bank-specific financials, I wanted to ground the fundamentals.
Putting the Tools to Work on Real Data
With Jupyter, pandas, and matplotlib set up, let's put those tools to work on real data.
Why It Shapes Bank Technology
The core banking system keeps coming up as one of the biggest constraints on what's possible in bank technology. I have started to understand why.
Lessons from Both Sides of the Table
I used to think banks were just slow. When I was pitching mobile payments to bankers years ago, I couldn't understand why they didn't see what seemed obvious to me. Working inside a bank, I've had to revisit some of those assumptions.
Net Interest Margin and the Business of Spreads
Understanding how banks make money turned out to be more interesting than I expected.
From Startups to Community Banking
I've spent years building tech startups and, at various points, pitching them to banks. Now I'm on the other side of that table, working as CTO of a community bank. The view is different from here, and I want to share what I'm learning along the way.
