Short answer: in this Q4 2025 U.S. Call Report screen, six banks passed: Washington Trust Company of Westerly, First Carolina Bank, Medallion Bank, Cambridge Savings Bank, NexBank, and California Bank of Commerce, N.A. The screen indicates that reported fee income rose much faster than assets or loans while reported problem loans stayed below the first-pass cutoff. It does not prove the fee income is recurring, low-risk, or suitable for a fintech partnership.
For fintech founders choosing a sponsor bank, the question is not simply whether noninterest income grew. Noninterest income means revenue that does not come from loan interest: payment fees, service charges, mortgage banking, trust or wealth fees, loan-sale gains, trading revenue, and other fee lines. Balance-sheet risk means the bank needed faster asset growth, looser credit, or more loan exposure to produce the revenue.
Data cutoff / last reviewed: this post uses public Q4 2025 Call Report data and was last reviewed on 2026-04-23. Public reporting schedules, instructions, and supervisory guidance change, so verify current filings and enforcement records before using the screen in a credit memo, board packet, or partner shortlist.
This Q4 2025 public-data screen from Deep Digital Ventures Banking looks for banks where noninterest income rose sharply while the balance sheet did not expand at the same pace. The screen is a research queue, not an investment recommendation or a sponsor-bank approval list.
How the Screen Works
The first filter keeps banks in the roughly $1 billion to $100 billion asset range, then asks for noninterest income growth above 25%, asset growth below 15%, and a reported nonperforming loan ratio below 2.5%. In plain English, the screen is looking for fee-income growth that did not come with a bigger balance sheet or obvious reported credit stress.
The source trail matters. The FFIEC Central Data Repository provides Call Report bulk files for bank balance sheets, income statements, and past-due loan schedules.[1] The FDIC Call Report forms and instructions page points readers to the current FFIEC 031, 041, and 051 forms and instructions.[2]
Methodology in brief: the screen uses total assets from Schedule RC, noninterest income from Schedule RI, loans from Schedule RC-C, and past-due or nonaccrual loans from Schedule RC-N. For institutions under $5 billion with domestic offices only, FFIEC 051 is often the relevant Call Report form; FFIEC 041 and FFIEC 031 cover larger or more complex reporters. Other schedules are useful in follow-up, especially RC-R for capital, RC-K for average balances, RI-B for charge-offs and recoveries, and RI-C for allowances.
| Bank | State | Assets | Current noninterest income | Prior-year base | Noninterest income growth | Asset growth | Loan growth | NPL ratio | Reviewer note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Washington Trust Company of Westerly | RI | $6.62B | Screen field: current Q4 value | Very small prior-year base | 2218.9% | -4.5% | -4.9% | 0.25% | Extreme small-base effect; verify source and recurrence. |
| First Carolina Bank | NC | $3.32B | Screen field: current Q4 value | Low prior-year base | 659.7% | 9.2% | 2.1% | 0.82% | Fee growth far outpaced loans; verify customer-linked source. |
| Medallion Bank | UT | $2.62B | Screen field: current Q4 value | Low prior-year base | 592.9% | 2.6% | 2.2% | 0.64% | Check whether income ties to repeatable program economics. |
| Cambridge Savings Bank | MA | $6.94B | Screen field: current Q4 value | Moderate prior-year base | 256.2% | 0.9% | -0.4% | 0.78% | Balance sheet was flat; confirm fee mix versus one-time gains. |
| NexBank | TX | $13.94B | Screen field: current Q4 value | Moderate prior-year base | 179.2% | 0.0% | 4.8% | 1.22% | Largest bank in the list; review average balances and concentrations. |
| California Bank of Commerce, N.A. | CA | $4.03B | Screen field: current Q4 value | Moderate prior-year base | 132.9% | 0.0% | -2.6% | 0.53% | Fee move came without loan growth; verify source quality. |
The table is a short list for follow-up, not a ranking of business quality. The current-dollar and prior-year-base columns are included because very large percentages can be mathematically true and still economically thin. Where the public screen field shows a low base, the reviewer should treat the percentage as a prompt to inspect the fee source rather than as proof of a new earnings engine.
Washington Trust Company of Westerly is the most extreme example in this screen: 2218.9% noninterest income growth, $6.62 billion of assets, -4.5% asset growth, -4.9% loan growth, and a 0.25% NPL ratio. That combination says the fee-income move was not paired with asset or loan expansion in the reported fields, but the percentage is large enough that the next review should start with the prior-year base and the exact income category.
First Carolina Bank screened in because its 659.7% noninterest income growth moved far beyond its 9.2% asset growth and 2.1% loan growth. A reviewer should verify whether the increase came from customer-linked treasury, payments, deposit, or other operating fees, or from a transaction that may not repeat.
Medallion Bank showed 592.9% noninterest income growth while assets rose 2.6%, loans rose 2.2%, and the NPL ratio remained 0.64%. The next question is whether the fee line is tied to a recurring program or servicing activity, and whether the same business line carries compliance, liquidity, or consumer-risk obligations.
Cambridge Savings Bank screened in with 256.2% noninterest income growth, nearly flat assets, slightly lower loans, and a 0.78% NPL ratio. That makes it a cleaner balance-sheet mismatch, but still not a conclusion; the reviewer should separate recurring customer fees from gains, marks, or catch-all other income.
NexBank is the largest institution in the table, with $13.94 billion of assets, 179.2% noninterest income growth, flat asset growth, 4.8% loan growth, and a 1.22% NPL ratio. Because the bank is larger and more complex than most of the list, average balances, capital, concentration exposure, and business-line mix matter more than the headline percentage.
California Bank of Commerce, N.A. screened in with 132.9% noninterest income growth, flat assets, lower loans, and a 0.53% NPL ratio. The row is less dramatic than the small-base cases, which makes the source question more important: if the income is recurring and customer-linked, it may be a stronger signal than the percentage alone suggests.
Why Fee Income Quality Matters
Schedule RI total noninterest income can include very different things: customer service charges, fiduciary or wealth activity, card and payment economics, mortgage banking, loan-sale gains, securities gains or losses, trading revenue, servicing income, and other items. A fintech founder cares because a bank with repeatable treasury, payments, card, or deposit-account fees is a different sponsor-bank candidate from a bank showing a one-period gain. Credit analysts, financial journalists, and community-bank directors can use the same screen lower in the diligence stack, but the first read is still source quality.
The better follow-up is not “fee income good” or “fee income bad.” It is a four-part test: whether the fee line is recurring, whether it is tied to customers rather than market marks or one-time gains, whether it arrived without fast asset or loan growth, and whether credit metrics, charge-offs, and allowances still support the story.
How to Use This Screen
- Start with the income statement. Confirm whether noninterest income rose because of a customer-linked category or because of a volatile item such as gains, trading revenue, or a catch-all other-income line.
- Check period-end assets and average balances. If period-end assets barely moved but average balances moved sharply, the bank may have had intra-quarter activity that the period-end balance sheet does not fully show.
- Check loans and problem loans. If loan growth is modest and past-due or nonaccrual loans are stable, the fee story deserves more time; if loan growth is fast or nonperformers are rising, the screen becomes a credit-risk question.
- Check capital and CRE exposure where relevant. The December 2006 interagency CRE concentration guidance uses supervisory criteria of 100% of total capital for construction, land development, and other land loans, or 300% of total capital for CRE loans with 50% or more CRE portfolio growth over the prior 36 months.[3]
- Check public enforcement sources before turning a screen result into a partner shortlist. Use FDIC, OCC, and Federal Reserve enforcement sources for the bank and its holding company.[4][5][6]
For sponsor-bank decisions, add one more source. The June 6, 2023 Interagency Guidance on Third-Party Relationships: Risk Management says banks should manage third-party relationships through planning, due diligence, contract negotiation, ongoing monitoring, and termination.[7] That means fee growth from fintech, payments, banking-as-a-service, or embedded-finance relationships should be reviewed with operations, compliance, liquidity, and customer-record controls, not just revenue growth.
A simple decision rule is useful. Keep a bank in the “review” pile when noninterest income growth is above 25%, asset growth is below 15%, loan growth is modest, and the NPL ratio is below 2.5%. Move it to “explain before advancing” when the percentage gain is extreme, the current-dollar fee base is small, or the income is concentrated in gains or other noninterest income. Move it to “do not advance without counsel and supervisory review” when public enforcement actions, BSA/AML restrictions, third-party-risk findings, or capital constraints touch the same business line that produced the fee growth.
What the Screen Cannot Tell You
Public Call Report data can show the size and trend of noninterest income, assets, loans, capital, charge-offs, allowances, and reported problem loans. It cannot explain management’s intent, contract terms, customer concentration, revenue durability, or whether a fee line will repeat. A very large percentage increase can come from a low prior-year base, and the Call Report schedule alone will not tell you whether the gain came from a repeatable customer activity or a one-time transaction.
The screen also does not replace filings, earnings releases, board packets, or direct diligence. A fintech founder should ask how much of the fee income is tied to program activity, which ledger and reconciliation controls support it, who owns customer complaints, and how termination would work. A board member should ask whether the same growth would still look attractive after adding compliance staffing, vendor oversight, fraud losses, BSA monitoring, and liquidity stress.
For a credit memo, write the conclusion in two lines: “The income statement shows fee growth; the balance sheet, loan schedule, and problem-loan schedule do not show matching balance-sheet stretch under this screen.” Then add the unresolved diligence item: “Source and recurrence of the fee income require review of income detail, public filings or management commentary, and enforcement searches.”
Inside Deep Digital Ventures Banking, the next step is to compare the screen row against peers instead of reading it in isolation. Use the peer comparison view to put the bank next to institutions with similar asset size, state, charter type, or business model, then check whether the fee-income move is unusual for the peer set or part of a broader quarter-end pattern.
FAQ
How do you separate recurring fees from one-time gains?
Start with the noninterest-income detail and separate customer-linked operating fees from securities gains, loan-sale gains, trading revenue, unusual servicing items, or broad “other” income. Recurring fee income should have a clear customer activity, contract path, and operational control set behind it.
What disqualifies a sponsor-bank candidate even if fee growth looks good?
Public enforcement actions, unresolved BSA/AML issues, third-party-risk findings, capital pressure, liquidity strain, weak reconciliation controls, or concentrated program economics can all outweigh the screen result. Passing the filter only means the bank deserves review; it does not mean the bank is ready for a fintech relationship.
Which Call Report lines matter most for this question?
The first pass needs total noninterest income, total assets, loans, and past-due or nonaccrual loans. The follow-up should add average balances, capital, charge-offs, recoveries, allowances, and any income detail that explains whether the fee move came from customers or from a less repeatable accounting item.
Sources
- FFIEC Central Data Repository bulk Call Report data: https://cdr.ffiec.gov/public/PWS/DownloadBulkData.aspx
- FDIC current Call Report forms, instructions, and related materials: https://www.fdic.gov/bank-financial-reports/current-quarter-call-report-forms-instructions-and-related-materials
- Federal Reserve interagency CRE concentration guidance, December 2006: https://www.federalreserve.gov/frrs/guidance/interagency-guidance-on-concentrations-in-commercial-real-estate-lending-sound-risk-management-practices.htm
- FDIC enforcement orders database: https://orders.fdic.gov/s/
- OCC enforcement actions page: https://www.occ.gov/topics/laws-and-regulations/enforcement-actions/index-enforcement-actions.html
- Federal Reserve enforcement actions page: https://www.federalreserve.gov/supervisionreg/enforcementactions.htm
- FDIC June 6, 2023 Interagency Guidance on Third-Party Relationships: Risk Management: https://www.fdic.gov/news/financial-institution-letters/2023/fil23029.html