Appendix _ — Data Card — FR Y-9C (Bank Holding Company Financials)

Provider & what it is

The FR Y-9C is the Consolidated Financial Statements for Holding Companies — the quarterly report that bank holding companies, savings and loan holding companies, and intermediate holding companies of foreign banks file with the Federal Reserve. Here is the reveal, and why it exists alongside the Call Reports: a big bank is rarely one legal entity. A holding company owns its bank plus broker-dealers, asset managers, and other subsidiaries. A Call Report shows you the bank subsidiary; the FR Y-9C shows the whole consolidated holding company, parent and all subsidiaries netted together as one economic unit. If your question is about the institution investors actually buy stock in — the entity in CRSP/Compustat — the FR Y-9C is usually the right level: consolidated assets, loans, deposits, trading positions, regulatory capital, and income, every quarter. Its convenient public home is the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, which hosts free bulk FR Y-9C data files (the “BHCF” files) going back decades.

Coverage

Top-tier U.S. bank/savings-and-loan holding companies above the asset-size reporting threshold, filed quarterly. Smaller holding companies file the abbreviated FR Y-9SP (semiannual) rather than the Y-9C; this card is the Y-9C (the consolidated, quarterly, larger-entity form). The Chicago Fed’s BHCF archive provides a deep history. [CHECK: the current asset-size filing threshold for the FR Y-9C and the earliest quarter in the Chicago Fed BHCF files — both have changed over time.] This is consolidated holding-company level — one record per holding company per quarter.

Key identifiers

The primary key is the RSSD ID — the same Federal Reserve permanent institution identifier used by the Call Reports and the National Information Center, but here it identifies the holding company, not a subsidiary bank. That is the whole point and the whole trap: the holding company’s RSSD ID and its subsidiary bank’s RSSD ID are different numbers, and the link between them lives in the Fed’s NIC structure/relationship files. Joining a Y-9C parent to its Call Report subsidiaries — or to CRSP/Compustat via a PERMCO/GVKEY crosswalk — is a Chapter 7.4 task and out of scope here. Line items use the MDRM coding scheme with a BHCK… prefix (the holding-company analog of the Call Report’s RCFD/RCON) — e.g. BHCK2170 for consolidated total assets.

Access path (download; no key required)

FR Y-9C data is free and needs no API key. The simplest path is the Chicago Fed bulk file:

import zipfile, requests, pandas as pd

# Chicago Fed "BHCF" bulk file for one quarter (one ZIP per period).
# url = "<Chicago Fed BHCF download URL for 2024-12-31>"   # [CHECK exact Chicago Fed endpoint]
raw = "data/raw/bhcf_2024Q4.zip"        # cache the raw bytes; read from disk thereafter
with zipfile.ZipFile(raw) as z:
    name = z.namelist()[0]
    y9c = pd.read_csv(z.open(name), sep="^", low_memory=False)   # [CHECK delimiter for the vintage]

# Pull the holding companies and items you need (illustrative codes).
cols = ["RSSD9001", "RSSD9999", "BHCK2170", "BHCK2122", "BHCK2200"]
panel = y9c[cols]    # RSSD9001 = entity RSSD, RSSD9999 = report date

The FFIEC CDR also serves the FR Y-9C (the same forms flow through the CDR), but for a camp project the Chicago Fed BHCF bulk file per quarter is the path of least resistance. Cache the raw ZIP and read the cached copy. The file’s delimiter and exact column layout vary by vintage — inspect before parsing.

License & GMU-infra note (§5)

Free and public U.S. government regulatory data — no GMU-infrastructure restriction, like the Call Reports and unlike the WRDS-licensed sources in this appendix. You may pull, cache, and commit the raw files anywhere. Apply the CONVENTIONS §5 discipline uniformly for reproducibility, not because a license requires it: pin the reporting quarter, cache the raw ZIP to data/raw/, and log the pull in logs/pulls.jsonl with a content hash. No credential is required for the Chicago Fed bulk files; if you instead script the FFIEC CDR web service, keep its token in an env var (§5).

Gotchas

Holding company ≠ its banks. The FR Y-9C consolidates the whole company; summing the subsidiary Call Reports will not reproduce it, and the RSSD IDs differ. Pick the level your question actually needs and never mix them without the NIC crosswalk.
BHCK prefix, and MDRM drift. Y-9C items use BHCK… codes (not the Call Report’s RCFD/ RCON); like all MDRM codes they are added, retired, and renumbered across years, so build series from the dictionary rather than assuming a code means the same thing back through history.
Threshold and form changes. The asset-size threshold for filing the Y-9C (vs. the semiannual Y-9SP) has been raised over time, so the set of filers changes across the panel — a firm entering or leaving the sample may reflect a rule change, not a real event.
Restatements and mergers. Holding companies amend filings, and bank-holding-company mergers create discontinuities and RSSD changes — a jump in one entity’s series is often a merger.
Vintage-specific layout. Delimiter, header, and column set differ across Chicago Fed file vintages; do not hard-code a parser across many years without checking each period.

“First 10 rows” schema sketch — selected items, one quarter (illustrative — not real data)

RSSD9001	RSSD9999	BHCK2170	BHCK2122	BHCK2200	BHCK4340
200001	2024-12-31	312045880	178220110	240118004	9852110
200002	2024-12-31	41880221	25004118	31220990	1180004
200003	2024-12-31	1880221004	1102004118	1450118220	52004110
200004	2024-12-31	5120998	3104221	4002118	158220
200005	2024-12-31	88220110	54118004	67004221	2540118
200006	2024-12-31	990221004	612118220	760004118	28220110
200007	2024-12-31	22118004	13880221	17004118	612004
200008	2024-12-31	450118220	280004221	350118004	12880110
200009	2024-12-31	7220998	4504118	5680221	220004
200010	2024-12-31	2104880221	1280118004	1620221110	61004220

(RSSD IDs and dollar amounts in $thousands are fabricated for shape illustration only. BHCK2170 = consolidated total assets, BHCK2122 = total loans & leases, BHCK2200 = total deposits, BHCK4340 = net income — code meanings illustrative.)

Which chapter / lab uses it

Catalogued in Appendix C as a free bank-regulation source, and the holding-company companion to the FFIEC Call Reports card. It is the right data layer when a Week-7/Week-8 capstone studies the publicly traded banking entity — bank-holding-company risk, capital, or lending — because the Y-9C level lines up with CRSP/Compustat (via a PERMCO/GVKEY crosswalk, a Ch 7.4 task). A natural fit for a Maya-style (household-finance/fair-lending) or Priya-style (climate-risk) bank-regulation project. Pull it the §5 way for reproducibility: pin the quarter, cache the raw ZIP, log the hash.

# Data Card — FR Y-9C (Bank Holding Company Financials) ## Provider & what it is The **FR Y-9C** is the *Consolidated Financial Statements for Holding Companies* — the quarterly report that bank holding companies, savings and loan holding companies, and intermediate holding companies of foreign banks file with the **Federal Reserve**. Here is the reveal, and why it exists alongside the Call Reports: a big bank is rarely *one* legal entity. A holding company owns its bank plus broker-dealers, asset managers, and other subsidiaries. A Call Report shows you the *bank* subsidiary; the FR Y-9C shows the **whole consolidated holding company**, parent and all subsidiaries netted together as one economic unit. If your question is about the institution investors actually buy stock in — the entity in CRSP/Compustat — the FR Y-9C is usually the right level: consolidated assets, loans, deposits, trading positions, regulatory capital, and income, every quarter. Its convenient public home is the **Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago**, which hosts free bulk FR Y-9C data files (the "BHCF" files) going back decades. ## Coverage Top-tier U.S. bank/savings-and-loan holding companies above the asset-size reporting threshold, filed **quarterly**. Smaller holding companies file the abbreviated **FR Y-9SP** (semiannual) rather than the Y-9C; this card is the Y-9C (the consolidated, quarterly, larger-entity form). The Chicago Fed's BHCF archive provides a deep history. [CHECK: the current asset-size filing threshold for the FR Y-9C and the earliest quarter in the Chicago Fed BHCF files — both have changed over time.] This is *consolidated holding-company* level — one record per holding company per quarter. ## Key identifiers The primary key is the **RSSD ID** — the same Federal Reserve permanent institution identifier used by the Call Reports and the National Information Center, but here it identifies the **holding company**, not a subsidiary bank. That is the whole point and the whole trap: the holding company's RSSD ID and its subsidiary bank's RSSD ID are *different numbers*, and the link between them lives in the Fed's **NIC structure/relationship files**. Joining a Y-9C parent to its Call Report subsidiaries — or to CRSP/Compustat via a PERMCO/GVKEY crosswalk — is a Chapter 7.4 task and out of scope here. Line items use the **MDRM** coding scheme with a **`BHCK…`** prefix (the holding-company analog of the Call Report's `RCFD`/`RCON`) — e.g. `BHCK2170` for consolidated total assets. ## Access path (download; no key required) FR Y-9C data is free and needs **no API key**. The simplest path is the Chicago Fed bulk file: ```python import zipfile, requests, pandas as pd # Chicago Fed "BHCF" bulk file for one quarter (one ZIP per period). # url = "<Chicago Fed BHCF download URL for 2024-12-31>" # [CHECK exact Chicago Fed endpoint] raw = "data/raw/bhcf_2024Q4.zip" # cache the raw bytes; read from disk thereafter with zipfile.ZipFile(raw) as z: name = z.namelist()[0] y9c = pd.read_csv(z.open(name), sep="^", low_memory=False) # [CHECK delimiter for the vintage] # Pull the holding companies and items you need (illustrative codes). cols = ["RSSD9001", "RSSD9999", "BHCK2170", "BHCK2122", "BHCK2200"] panel = y9c[cols] # RSSD9001 = entity RSSD, RSSD9999 = report date ``` The FFIEC CDR also serves the FR Y-9C (the same forms flow through the CDR), but for a camp project the **Chicago Fed BHCF bulk file per quarter** is the path of least resistance. Cache the raw ZIP and read the cached copy. The file's delimiter and exact column layout vary by vintage — inspect before parsing. ## License & GMU-infra note (§5) **Free and public** U.S. government regulatory data — **no** GMU-infrastructure restriction, like the Call Reports and unlike the WRDS-licensed sources in this appendix. You may pull, cache, and commit the raw files anywhere. Apply the CONVENTIONS §5 discipline uniformly for reproducibility, not because a license requires it: **pin the reporting quarter, cache the raw ZIP to `data/raw/`, and log the pull in `logs/pulls.jsonl` with a content hash.** No credential is required for the Chicago Fed bulk files; if you instead script the FFIEC CDR web service, keep its token in an env var (§5). ## Gotchas - **Holding company ≠ its banks.** The FR Y-9C consolidates the *whole* company; summing the subsidiary Call Reports will not reproduce it, and the RSSD IDs differ. Pick the level your question actually needs and never mix them without the NIC crosswalk. - **`BHCK` prefix, and MDRM drift.** Y-9C items use `BHCK…` codes (not the Call Report's `RCFD`/ `RCON`); like all MDRM codes they are added, retired, and renumbered across years, so build series from the dictionary rather than assuming a code means the same thing back through history. - **Threshold and form changes.** The asset-size threshold for filing the Y-9C (vs. the semiannual Y-9SP) has been raised over time, so the *set* of filers changes across the panel — a firm entering or leaving the sample may reflect a rule change, not a real event. - **Restatements and mergers.** Holding companies amend filings, and bank-holding-company mergers create discontinuities and RSSD changes — a jump in one entity's series is often a merger. - **Vintage-specific layout.** Delimiter, header, and column set differ across Chicago Fed file vintages; do not hard-code a parser across many years without checking each period. ## "First 10 rows" schema sketch — selected items, one quarter (illustrative — not real data) | RSSD9001 | RSSD9999 | BHCK2170 | BHCK2122 | BHCK2200 | BHCK4340 | |---------:|----------|---------:|---------:|---------:|---------:| | 200001 | 2024-12-31 | 312045880 | 178220110 | 240118004 | 9852110 | | 200002 | 2024-12-31 | 41880221 | 25004118 | 31220990 | 1180004 | | 200003 | 2024-12-31 | 1880221004 | 1102004118 | 1450118220 | 52004110 | | 200004 | 2024-12-31 | 5120998 | 3104221 | 4002118 | 158220 | | 200005 | 2024-12-31 | 88220110 | 54118004 | 67004221 | 2540118 | | 200006 | 2024-12-31 | 990221004 | 612118220 | 760004118 | 28220110 | | 200007 | 2024-12-31 | 22118004 | 13880221 | 17004118 | 612004 | | 200008 | 2024-12-31 | 450118220 | 280004221 | 350118004 | 12880110 | | 200009 | 2024-12-31 | 7220998 | 4504118 | 5680221 | 220004 | | 200010 | 2024-12-31 | 2104880221 | 1280118004 | 1620221110 | 61004220 | (RSSD IDs and dollar amounts in $thousands are fabricated for shape illustration only. `BHCK2170` = consolidated total assets, `BHCK2122` = total loans & leases, `BHCK2200` = total deposits, `BHCK4340` = net income — code meanings illustrative.) ## Which chapter / lab uses it Catalogued in **Appendix C** as a *free* bank-regulation source, and the holding-company companion to the FFIEC Call Reports card. It is the right data layer when a Week-7/Week-8 capstone studies the *publicly traded* banking entity — bank-holding-company risk, capital, or lending — because the Y-9C level lines up with CRSP/Compustat (via a PERMCO/GVKEY crosswalk, a Ch 7.4 task). A natural fit for a Maya-style (household-finance/fair-lending) or Priya-style (climate-risk) bank-regulation project. Pull it the §5 way for reproducibility: pin the quarter, cache the raw ZIP, log the hash.