Select a community bank that failed (see the FDIC web site at www.fdic.gov/bank/individual/failed/banklist.html (Links to an external site.) ).

Obtain the most recent UBPR data for the bank from the FFIEC’s web site (www.ffiec.gov/UBPR.htm (Links to an external site.)) and calculate profitability and various risk exposures of the bank for the 8 quarters prior to the failure.

Use your calculation to shed light on the reasons for bank failure. Potential reasons may include, but not limited to, the bank’s credit policy, loan characteristics, management of interest rate risk, competition from peer banks or FinTech companies, and so on. You may also use newsletters to supplement your analysis with the UBPR data.