Call report instructions update: five quarters, and what they touched

A Call Report instructions update is the short document, published with each quarter's materials on the FDIC and FFIEC sites, that lists the pages replaced in the FFIEC 031 and 041 instruction book (and, separately, in the FFIEC 051 book). The September 2026 update for the 031 and 041 replaced pages in Schedules RC-E, RC-O, RC-R Part I and RC-S, pages 10 and 10a of the General Instructions, and five Glossary pages (FFIEC 031 and 041 Instructions Update, September 2026). Every replaced page carries its revision date in the footer, "(9-26)", so the book is a patchwork in which pages from different years sit side by side. That is why an answer to a Call Report question, or a bank's position memo, is right only as of the pages it cited. Botminds' Call Report Instructions Search treats the update as an accuracy event: its Change agent reads every page's date and opens a re-check on each memo and saved answer that relies on a page revised after it.

How often are call report instructions updated?

Whenever the agencies change a requirement, which in practice means most quarters but not all. Across the five report dates from September 30, 2025 to September 30, 2026, the FFIEC 031 and 041 book was updated three times and the FFIEC 051 book twice. For September 2025 the FDIC's page still listed the book's "Most Recent Update March 31, 2025"; March 2026 brought no update at all, and the first-quarter letter said "There are no new data items or revisions that take effect this quarter" (FIL-10-2026). June 2026 changed only the 031 and 041 book, for two new FFIEC 031 data items tied to the revised enhanced supplementary leverage ratio rule (FIL-33-2026).

What arrived in each of those five quarters, update or not, was a Financial Institution Letter and a new set of Supplemental Instructions, which carry topics the book has not absorbed, such as an FDIC special assessment or a newly issued accounting standard. A bank that watches only for instruction updates misses half of the changes; one that watches only the letter misses which pages moved. What the September 2026 Supplemental Instructions changed is covered in its own guide.

Does an instructions update mean new Call Report items?

Not necessarily, and the two are worth keeping apart. The fourth-quarter 2025 letter said "There are no new data items that take effect this quarter" in any of the three forms, yet the instructions were updated "to specify the length of time that loan modifications to borrowers experiencing financial difficulty should be reported" (FIL-1-2026). The same was true in September 2026: no new data items, but revised text in four schedules, the General Instructions and the Glossary (FIL-62-2026). A text change is the more dangerous kind, because the report form looks identical and the software may not prompt anyone to read anything.

What changed in the call report instructions in September 2026?

Three main things, none of them a new item, plus a clarification in Schedule RC-E that trust funds whose beneficiary data are not available are included as deposits of an individual, partnership or corporation. Schedule RC-R, Part I now reflects the final rule that lowered the community bank leverage ratio requirement from 9 percent to 8 percent and extended the grace period from two quarters to four, effective July 1, 2026. The deposit schedules and the Brokered Deposits entry in the Glossary reflect the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act, which changed the treatment of reciprocal and certain custodial deposits on July 11, 2026. And the General Instructions now give every bank the option to file on the next business day when the due date falls on a weekend or holiday (FIL-62-2026).

The Glossary page carrying the Brokered Deposits entry, A-20a, is a good illustration of drift. It was replaced in the December 2025 update and again in September 2026 (December 2025 update; September 2026 update). A memo about reciprocal deposits approved in early 2026 rests on a version of that page that has since been replaced.

What does the date at the bottom of a Call Report instruction page mean?

It is the quarter in which that page was last revised, written as month and two-digit year: "(12-24)" is December 2024, "(9-26)" is September 2026. It is printed under the page number in the footer of every page of the FFIEC books, so one schedule can hold pages of very different ages. The FDIC's index of the 031 and 041 book shows the same patchwork at the level of whole files: on October 27, 2026 it listed the Glossary, General Instructions and RC-E, RC-O, RC-R Part I and RC-S as of September 2026, Schedule RC-C as of December 2025, RC-A as of June 2020, and RC-I as of March 2001 (FDIC, FFIEC 031 and 041 instructions).

Read the chart as a warning about memos, not about the agencies. Twenty-four RC-C pages were revised in 2024, fifteen of them in December, including the pages for item 9.a, loans to nondepository financial institutions, and item 10, leases. Any position memo on those lines approved before then cites text that may have moved, and the only way to know is to compare the passage itself, not just the date (Schedule RC-C instructions).

How do I know if an instruction page changed?

Compare three dates: the revision date on the page the memo or answer cites, the date the memo was approved, and the report date being filed. If the page is newer than the memo, open the passage and compare the words; a revised page can carry the cited sentence unchanged, because the revision may sit elsewhere on the page. If the words changed, the position needs a ruling before the bank files from it. The "Instructions Update" list tells you which pages to look at; the redline version of the Supplemental Instructions, and their vertical line in the right margin, tells you what moved in the letter itself.

This is the check the Change agent in Call Report Instructions Search runs for every memo and every saved answer, each time a quarter's instructions load. On sample data about a fictional bank with 180 position memos, it found six that rely on a page revised after they were approved. In five, the cited passage had changed; in the sixth, the page had been reissued but the passage was the same, and the Policy Lead marked it reviewed.

The revision-date watch: memos older than the pages they cite

Where do I find the latest call report instructions?

On the FDIC's current-quarter Call Report page, which links the forms, both books' Instructions Updates, the full instruction books, the quarter's Financial Institution Letter and the Supplemental Instructions in clean and redline versions (FDIC, current quarter Call Report materials). The FFIEC publishes the same instruction books. Earlier quarters, back to 1997, sit on the FDIC's previous-quarters page (FDIC, previous quarters), which matters when a bank amends an old report: an amendment for June 30, 2024 is prepared under the instructions in force then, not today's.

Two habits keep a team on the current text. Download the whole book each quarter rather than single schedules, because a schedule file can be reissued with a new "as of" date while most of its pages are unchanged: the RC-C file dated December 2025 has one page from that quarter and four from 2013. And keep each quarter's set, with its date, wherever answers and memos cite it, so that "the instruction said so" can be shown for the report date in question.

How do banks track call report instruction changes?

Through a written change process with an owner, which is what examiners look for. The OCC lists "change management processes for systems affected by new or updated regulatory reporting requirements" among the subjects a bank's regulatory reporting policies generally address, and asks examiners to check that automated reporting systems keep up with accounting and regulatory changes (Comptroller's Handbook, Regulatory Reporting). The instruction books themselves place the burden plainly: each bank must report fully and accurately each quarter under the requirements as they stand on that report date, changes included (General Instructions, page 10; quoted in call report preparation software, tested).

Accuracy that is measured each quarter, not once

An answer engine for the Call Report cannot be accurate in general, only accurate for a report date. The useful measures are therefore about change: how many saved answers and memos cite a page revised this quarter, how many of those passages actually changed, how long the re-checks took, and whether the known questions still return their known answers once the new pages load. In Call Report Instructions Search each quarter's instructions load as a new corpus version, which the Regulatory Reporting Manager approves only after 120 golden questions are re-run, and every answer keeps the corpus version it rested on.

That last detail is what lets a bank answer an examiner months later. The instruction page behind every citation opens with its page number, its revision date and the corpus version, so "which page did the preparer read, and was it current on that day?" has a one-click answer.

The instruction page behind a citation, with its revision date and corpus version

Questions people ask

What are the current call report instructions?

For the September 30, 2026 report date, the FFIEC 031 and 041 book and the FFIEC 051 book as updated in September 2026, read together with the September 2026 Supplemental Instructions and FIL-62-2026. The FDIC's current-quarter page links all of them.

Is the call report instructions update the same as the supplemental instructions?

No. The Instructions Update lists the replaced pages of the instruction book; the Supplemental Instructions are a separate quarterly document that carries guidance on new rules, accounting standards and reporting issues, some of which the book has not yet absorbed.

Do I need to re-read the whole book every quarter?

No, but you need to read every replaced page that touches a line you report, and compare the passages your memos cite. In September 2026 that meant 25 dated pages in the 031 and 041 files, across six parts of the book.

Which instructions apply to an amended Call Report?

The instructions in force for the report date being amended. The FDIC keeps each quarter's forms, instructions and supplemental instructions on its previous-quarters page for that reason.

Why do some instruction pages have letters, like RC-C-20a?

Lettered pages extend a schedule between two numbered pages, so RC-C-20a and RC-C-20b follow RC-C-20. The update lists use the same numbering, for example RC-E-8a to RC-E-10d in September 2026, so a memo should cite the page exactly, letter included.