Key features of BankCom:

• Bank management simulation in which participants run a modern bank for up to 7 fiscal quarters.  Each “bank” has up to 6 executives.
• Incorporates functional areas of CEO, Chief Lending Executive, Chief Deposits Executive, Chief Risk Executive, CFO and Treasurer.  Participants rotate responsibilities.
• Fundamental focus on performance, on the planning and management of risks (credit, market, liquidity, operational) and the capital required by the bank in view of the risks taken.
• Analysts’ recommendations to buy, sell or hold a bank’s stock influence share price movements.  Analysts’ assessments are determined by accounting-based performance assessments, non-accounting-based assessments and by the bank’s ability to provide reliable guidance to analysts.
• Internal (private) and external (public) reports provide managers with complete financial statements, competitive analysis, economic conditions, analyst reports and functional area reports.  In all, there are over 50 pages of reports.
• Reports include economic value-based measures of risk and performance in addition to accounting-based measures including:
  • ROE and its subcomponents
  • EVA
  • RAROC
  • Interest rate sensitivity gap
  • Economic value sensitivity (adjusted duration gap)
  • Net Income sensitivity
  • Common Equity Tier 1 ratio, Total Capital ratio, Tier 1 Leverage ratio
  • Customer Experience metrics
• Comparative performance charts and graphs.
• Loan pricing decisions made on the basis of spread-to-FTP (Funds Transfer Price) for 5 FICO bands for retail products and 6 credit grades for commercial products.
• Product choices available to banks:
  • Retail and Commercial lending
    • 12 retail lending products
    • 7 commercial lending products
  • Residential mortgages may be held for sale or held to maturity
    • Mortgage servicing rights (MSR) are modeled.
  • Money market deposits (multi-tier, individual and small business)
  • Savings deposits
  • Demand deposits (individual, small business, middle market, corporate and public)
    • Many choices for product features including sweep and treasury management
  • Time deposits
    • Up to 12 new certificate offerings can be designed each quarter
    • Design features include rate, required minimum and premium balances
• Full range of treasury decisions including:
  • Government, agency, municipal and asset-backed securities
  • Home Loan Bank advances
  • Jumbo certificates of deposit
  • Brokered deposits
  • Interest rate swaps
• Infrastructure and HR modeling to support planned loan growth.
• Choice to expand digital offerings.
  
• Ability to issue and redeem capital instruments including common shares and subordinated debt (as a component of Tier 2 Capital).
• Ability to offer non-bank financial services.

BankCom was first used at the Consumer Bankers Association’s Executive Banking School in 2011.  It was written in C# by Paul Leventhal, a finance professor with 35 years of teaching experience and over 30 years experience in the teaching of bank management through simulation.  Paul designed the BankCom model with significant input from past and current banking executives.

BankCom is in a state of continuous development.  Changes in regulation are incorporated into the model on an “as required” basis.