How to Create a Custom Peer Group

Peer Suite allows you to create custom peer groups in 3 different ways. Below you'll find instructions for each method. Choose the one that best fits your analysis!

Criteria-Based Peer Group

A criteria-based peer group enables you to form a group of comparable credit unions or banks by utilizing specific criteria like financial performance metrics or geographic location.

You can access the Peer Group Builder in two places.

1. Via the Comparison Search Dropdown: Click on the "Peer Groups" tab from the Comparison Search dropdown to reveal a quick access link to "Create a Peer Group" at the bottom of the scroll box.

2. Via "Create" in Your Top Nav: Click on "Create" from the top of your Peer Suite screen and choose "Select By Criteria" from the Peer Group section to open the Peer Group Builder.

Peer Group Builder

After you've selected banks or credit unions for your peer group composition and set your desired cycle, you can begin building your peer group using any combination of these five filters;

1. Geography
2. Account Codes/Metric Filters
3. Field of Membership/Charter Type
4. Vendor Filters
5. Include/Exclude List

Select Your Geography

Use the map to specify the geographic footprint of the institutions you'd like to include in your peer group.

Select By State:

Single click on a state to either select or deselect all institutions within that state.

Select By County:

• Begin by clicking on the state from which you'd like to choose counties.
• You can manually search for your desired counties in the table on the right side of the Peer Group Builder.
• Alternatively, you can use the "Select Individual Counties" option, which will display a county map view of your selected state. From there, you can click to select or deselect specific counties directly on the map.

At any point, you can reset your selection or select the entire US.

This page also allows you to specify whether you'd like to choose institutions based on their headquarters' location or by branch presence.

Select Your Metric Filters

This filter allows you to add specific criteria to your peer group. You can enter a Callahan Defined Fact (i.e., "ROA" or "assets"), account codes (unique identifiers for specific data points), and formulas (e.g., loans/shares or using other standard mathematical operators (+, -, *, /). Additionally, you can use abbreviations like K, M, and B to represent thousands, millions, and billions.

• Use the filter table or the search bar next to the map to add criteria. 
  • You can enter:
    • Account codes (ex: a010) 
      • Note that 5300 Call Report account codes always need an ‘A’ in front. Browse the current 5300 Call Report for inspiration!
    • Formulas (ex: loans/shares)
      • All standard operators will work here (+, -, *, /). You do NOT need to preface your formula with an "=" sign 
    • Smart Codes (ex: "ROA" or "assets")
  • Use K, M, B as abbreviations for thousands, millions, and billions
• Remove items by clicking X on the row
• Reorder items by clicking the dotted grid to the left and dragging up or down

The below demonstrates an example of how to use account codes to create a peer group with the below criteria:

• Assets: $100M-$300M
• Institutions that have a low income designation.

Explore more ways to create peer groups using metrics by checking out our Peer Group Inspiration & Strategy Guide.

Filter by FOM & Charter Type

This section of the Peer Group Builder allows you to include institutions based on their FOM (Field of Membership) and/or Charter Type.

Please note: Field of Membership is only reported for federally chartered credit unions only. State chartered credit unions all report "Other."

Select Your Vendor Filters

Here you can tailor your peer group to only include institutions that have specific vendors. 

• When selecting multiple vendors from the same category, it's an "OR" scenario where institutions need just one vendor.
• When selecting multiple vendors across different categories (i.e 3 core and 1 lending vendor) this acts as an "AND" scenario, meaning you need at least one vendor from each category.

Choose to Include or Exclude Institutions

The Include/Exclude List Filter enables you to either manually input institutions or upload a list of charter numbers for institutions you wish to include or exclude from your peer group. These inputs override any other filters you have selected for your peer group.

Here's how it works:

1. Use the blue toggle to indicate your selection for your chosen upload or manual list additions.
2. Review your selected institutions in the table to the right of the display.
   • Excluded institutions are marked with a red exclusion symbol.
   • Included institutions are identified with a green plus mark.
3. To remove institutions from the list, click the "X" to the right of their name.
4. To clear all selections click the "X" in the top right corner of the table.

Review & Save Your Peer Group

Once you've applied your desired peer group filters you may want to review it's final composition to remove any remaining outliers, your institution, or to gain a better understanding of the group dynamics.

• Click on the Edit & Preview menu at the bottom of the window
  • This shows which institutions are included in your peer group based on your chosen filters
  • Uncheck boxes to remove unwanted institutions from your peer group 
  • Sort rows by clicking any header name cell
  • The badge at the top of the window shows the number of credit unions or banks included
• Name and save to begin your analysis!

Select by Institution

1. Select a state from the dropdown to narrow your search to institutions within that state.
2. Click on institutions to add them to your peer group.
3. You can easily remove any institution by unchecking the blue box next to its name.
4. If needed, clear your selection with a single click on "Reset" located in the bottom left.
5. Name and save your finalized peer group.

Upload a List

You have the option to create a peer group by uploading a list of charter numbers.

Add institutions by uploading a list of charter numbers from an Excel or a CSV file - they will be added to your peer group list on the right-hand side.