FR2248_20170125_omb

Supporting Statement for the
Domestic Finance Company Report of Consolidated Assets and Liabilities
(FR 2248; OMB No. 7100-0005)
Summary
The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (Board), under delegated
authority from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), proposes to extend for three years,
without revision, the voluntary Domestic Finance Company Report of Consolidated Assets and
Liabilities (FR 2248; OMB No. 7100-0005). The FR 2248 is collected monthly as of the last
calendar day of the month from a stratified sample1 of finance companies.2 Each monthly report
collects balance sheet data on major categories of consumer and business credit receivables and
on major short-term liabilities. For quarter-end months (March, June, September, and
December), additional asset and liability items are collected to provide a full balance sheet. A
supplemental section collects data on securitized assets. Board staff may ask either quantitative
or qualitative questions through the use of a special addendum section no more than twice per
year. The data are used to construct universe estimates of finance company holdings, which are
published in the monthly statistical releases Finance Companies (G.20) and Consumer Credit
(G.19), and in the quarterly statistical release Flow of Funds Accounts of the United States
(Z.1).3 The current annual burden for the FR 2248 is estimated to be 750 hours.
Background and Justification
Since the mid-1940s, the Federal Reserve has collected consumer credit data from
finance companies on a regular basis. In 1955, the Federal Reserve conducted its first universe
survey of finance companies, including business finance companies. In that survey, information
was collected on major assets and liabilities, with an emphasis on receivables. Using data from
that first universe survey, the Federal Reserve developed a monthly sample survey. Two sample
panels were drawn from companies reporting in that universe survey, one representing consumer
finance companies (which mainly provided small cash loans to individuals) and the other
representing sales finance companies (which mainly purchased credit contracts generated in the
sale of durable consumer goods). Companies in each sample panel were asked to supply the
Federal Reserve with monthly data on their major consumer credit receivables.
To benchmark the monthly sample series, the Federal Reserve continued to conduct the
universe finance company survey at five-year intervals. In 1980, this benchmark survey was
changed from a universe to a sample survey.
1

Potential universe of respondents is identified by the quinquennial Census of Finance Companies (FR 3033p) and
Survey of Finance Companies (FR 3033s) (OMB No.7100-0277), as explained in the Background and Justification
section.
2
Finance companies include companies in which 50 percent or more of assets are held in any of the following types
of loan or lease assets: (1) liens on real estate, defined as outstanding balances on loans or leases, for any purpose,
secured by liens on real estate; (2) loans and leases not secured by real estate, such as business loans and leases,
defined as outstanding balances on loans and on leases for commercial and industrial purposes to sole
proprietorships, partnerships, corporations, and other business enterprises, or consumer loans and leases—
outstanding balances on loans and on leases, for household, family, and other personal expenditures.
3
See https://www.federalreserve.gov/econresdata/statisticsdata.htm.

In 1970, the Federal Reserve abandoned the distinction between consumer and sales
finance companies, owing to widespread diversification within the finance company industry. At
that time, a single new reporting form was introduced to cover all major types of lending
(consumer, sales, and business financing). Since 1970, other changes have been made to the
reporting form in order to capture information on new types of activities in which finance
companies were engaging as well as to eliminate data items no longer needed by the Federal
Reserve. Major changes made in 1987 include the elimination of extensions data and the
addition of the supplement on securitized assets.
In 2002, the survey was modified in three ways. First, the authorized panel size was
reduced to 80 finance companies because the number of finance companies responding to the
survey had declined, owing to industry consolidation and attrition. Second, four questions on the
breakdown of real estate loans for one- to four-family structures were added in order to improve
flow of funds estimates of such loans. Third, a special addendum section was added, which may
be used if the need arises for timely information on questions of immediate concern to the Board.
In 2005, the definition of a finance company reporting panel was expanded to include mortgage
companies, which are nondepository institutions that specialize in first liens on real estate.
In 2008, the reporting form was revised to split All other assets and accounts and notes
receivable, into three separate data items. This revision enhanced the Federal Reserve’s estimate
of the finance company balance sheet currently published in the Federal Reserve System’s Flow
of Funds accounts. In addition, the authorized panel size was reduced to 70 companies because
the number of finance companies responding to the survey had declined, owing to industry
consolidation and attrition.
In 2010, the FR 2248 was revised in order to be consistent with typical balance sheet
presentations and to improve the ability of the Federal Reserve to analyze consumer credit
outstanding held by finance companies to make more informed policy decisions. In addition,
these revisions to the FR 2248 aligned with the survey used to benchmark these data—the
FR 3033s. The FR 3033s data are used to benchmark the FR 2248 data on a quinquennial basis.
In essence, the FR 3033s survey is the second stage of the two-stage survey, sent to finance
companies that respond to a simple questionnaire, the FR 3033p, sent to all known domestic
finance and mortgage companies. The FR 3033p requests information about each company’s
total net assets, areas of specialization, and other characteristics in order to first identify a
potential universe of domestic finance companies, from which the sample of finance companies
is drawn.
Finance companies also provide a significant share of short- and medium-term credit to
businesses. Business investment, both for fixed capital and inventory, is one of the more
cyclically sensitive components of GDP. Because of the significant effect monetary policy can
have on business investment, in part via the availability of credit, monitoring the sources of
funding to businesses is important for the conduct of monetary policy. Currently, there is no
other information collection for domestic finance companies in place that supplies the monthly
data obtained on the FR 2248.

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In 2013, the FR 2248 reporting form was revised to obtain detailed information on
student loans, which improves the ability of the Board to have a better understanding of the
student loan market. In addition to monetary and economic policymaking, finance companylevel data on student loans assists the Federal Reserve in identifying trends and concentrations of
student loans and helps to assess consumer compliance risk of its institutions. Finally, the
systematical collection of these data improves the Board’s ability to respond to requests from the
Congress and further enhances the Federal Reserve’s prudential supervision efforts. In addition,
the authorized respondent panel size was increased from 70 to 150 finance companies in order to
capture a greater number of finance companies consistent with the FR 3033p and to improve the
statistical accuracy of the estimates.
Description of Information Collection
The FR 2248 collects information on amounts outstanding in major categories of
consumer and business credit held by finance companies and on major short-term liabilities of
the finance companies. For quarter-end months (March, June, September, and December) the
report also collects information on other assets and liabilities outstanding as well as information
on capital accounts in order to provide a full balance sheet. In addition, a supplemental section
collects data about assets that have been pooled by finance companies and sold to third parties
that issue securities based on those assets. The supplemental section is organized in the same
four categories of credit (consumer, real estate, business, and lease-related). The special
addendum section may be used if the need arises for the collection of timely information on
questions of immediate concern to the Federal Reserve. When necessary, respondents would be
asked no more than twice a year to provide answers to a limited number of relevant questions,
which would be distributed in advance to ease burden and which would take, on average, ten
minutes to complete. This addendum provides the Federal Reserve a valuable source of
information regarding timely topics and events in financial markets.
Reporting Panel
The current FR 2248 authorized panel size is 150 finance companies.
Frequency
The Federal Reserve will retain the monthly frequency, with some data items continuing
to be reported only for the quarter-end months.
Time Schedule for Information Collection and Publication
The majority of survey respondents submit their FR 2248 data monthly to the Federal
Reserve Banks. Other finance companies in the panel submit their data directly to the Board on
a monthly basis. Respondents submit quarterly data for quarter-end months only. To help ease
the reporting burden on respondents, any semiannual special addendum questions would be sent
to the respondents approximately three weeks in advance of the report as-of date. This advance
notice would allow the respondents to submit the addendum data along with their regular
monthly data. The data are edited and transmitted to the Board for central processing. All data

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are due at the Board on the 18th business day after the end of the month. Aggregate data are
published in the Board’s monthly statistical releases Consumer Credit (G.19) and Finance
Companies (G.20), in the quarterly statistical release Flow of Funds Accounts of the United
States (Z.1).
Legal Status
The Board’s Legal Division has determined that the FR 2248 is authorized by law
pursuant to section 2A of the Federal Reserve Act (12 U.S.C. § 225a). The obligation to respond
is voluntary. Individual respondent data are confidential under section (b)(4) of the Freedom of
Information Act (5 U.S.C. §552).
Consultation Outside the Agency
On October 3, 2016, the Board published a notice in the Federal Register (81 FR 68018)
requesting public comment for 60 days on the extension, without revision, of the FR 2248. The
comment period for this notice expired on December 2, 2016. The Board did not receive any
comments. On January 17, 2017, the Board published a final notice in the Federal Register
(82 FR 4883).
Estimate of Respondent Burden
The following table shows estimates of the burden imposed by the Federal Reserve
System on the domestic finance companies that participate in the FR 2248. These reporting
requirements represent less than 1 percent of total Federal Reserve System paperwork burden.

FR 2248

Monthly
Quarterly
Addendum

Number of
respondents4

Annual
frequency

Estimated
average time
per response

Estimated
annual burden
hours

150
150
150

8
4
2

20 minutes
30 minutes
10 minutes

400
300
50
750

Total

The total annual cost to the public for this information collection is estimated to be $39,863.5
4

Of the current respondents filing this information collection, six are considered small entities as defined by the
Small Business Administration (i.e., entities with less than $550 million in total assets)
www.sba.gov/contracting/getting-started-contractor/make-sure-you-meet-sba-size-standards/table-small-businesssize-standards.
5
Total cost to the public was estimated using the following formula: percent of staff time, multiplied by annual
burden hours, multiplied by hourly rates (30% Office & Administrative Support at $17, 45% Financial Managers at
$65, 15% Lawyers at $66, and 10% Chief Executives at $89). Hourly rates for each occupational group are the
(rounded) mean hourly wages from the Bureau of Labor and Statistics (BLS), Occupational Employment and Wages
May 2015, published March 30, 2016 www.bls.gov/news.release/ocwage.t01.htm. Occupations are defined using
the BLS Occupational Classification System, www.bls.gov/soc/.

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Sensitive Questions
This collection of information contains no questions of a sensitive nature, as defined by
OMB guidelines.
Estimate of Cost to the Federal Reserve System
The cost to the Federal Reserve System for collecting and processing this report is
estimated to be $44,200.

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