Bank statement analysis for mortgage brokers and lenders

What a statement review involves

For a conventional loan, lenders usually ask for the two most recent months of statements to verify assets, and they review large deposits. Fannie Mae, for example, defines a large deposit as a single deposit that exceeds 50% of the total monthly qualifying income for the loan, and on a purchase, a large deposit used for the down payment, closing costs or reserves must be documented as coming from an acceptable source (Selling Guide B3-4.2-02).

Bank statement loans for self-employed borrowers go further: income is worked out from 12 or 24 months of personal or business statements instead of tax returns. Each lender's program decides which deposits count, which are excluded (transfers, refunds, loan proceeds) and what expense factor applies to a business account. All of it starts with the same thing: every deposit in a spreadsheet.

From PDFs to an income worksheet

1. Collect every page of every statement for every account in the period — a missing month or page is an easy gap to overlook.
2. Upload them together. PDFs, scans and phone photos and password-protected statements all work, and a PDF that holds several accounts is split into one statement per account.
3. Check that each statement balances: opening balance + money in − money out = closing balance. Then check the months link up — each statement's closing balance should be the next one's opening balance.
4. Set deposit categories that match how you underwrite, such as Business income, Payroll, Transfer between own accounts, Refund, Loan proceeds and Cash deposit. Turn corrections into rules so every month is treated the same way.
5. Export all statements as one Excel file, limited to the exact 12 or 24 months, and total deposits by month and category with a pivot table or the Summary sheet.

Spot large or irregular deposits

Once deposits are rows in a sheet, the review is a sort and a filter instead of a read-through of 200 pages:

• Filter money in above your threshold — for Fannie Mae, 50% of monthly qualifying income — and list each one for sourcing
• Find transfers between the borrower's own accounts: with all accounts uploaded, both sides appear, so they aren't counted twice as income
• Group cash deposits and payment-app transfers, which usually need an explanation
• Look for overdraft and NSF fees, and for recurring payments that don't match the debts on the application
• Compare monthly deposit totals to spot a sudden jump just before the application

Any bank, any format

There are no bank templates. Statements from national banks, credit unions, online banks and card issuers work, in any language. If the borrower can download CSV or OFX files from online banking, upload those too — structured files use no pages.

The guide to bank statements for a mortgage explains what lenders ask borrowers for, and the Excel export describes the columns you get.

What it doesn't do

It doesn't calculate qualifying income under a specific program, and it doesn't judge whether a statement is genuine — that remains the underwriter's job. It never creates or edits statements. The spreadsheet is a working copy for analysis; the borrower's original statements stay the documents of record.

What the balance check does show is that the extracted transactions add up to the totals printed on each statement, so the numbers you analyze match the source.

What a full application file costs

You pay per page with transactions. Two accounts for 24 months at about four pages a statement is roughly 190 pages, which fits in a 500-page pack for $39; packs never expire. Brokers with steady volume can use the 2,000-page pack for $99 or the Business plan at $79 a month for 2,000 pages. Statements that don't balance are free. See pricing.

Questions