FR3016_20171031_omb

Supporting Statement for the
Ongoing Intermittent Survey of Households
(FR 3016; OMB No. 7100-0150)
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,
with revision, the Ongoing Intermittent Survey of Households (FR 3016; OMB No. 7100-0150).
The Board uses this voluntary survey to obtain household-based information specifically tailored
to the Board’s policy, regulatory, and operational responsibilities. The Board primarily uses the
survey to study consumer financial decisions, attitudes, and payment behavior. Currently, the
University of Michigan’s Survey Research Center (SRC) includes survey questions on behalf of
the Board in an addendum to their regular monthly Survey of Consumer Attitudes and
Expectations. The SRC conducts the survey by telephone with a sample of 500 households and
asks questions of special interest to the Board.
The Board proposes to eliminate the Division of Consumer and Community Affairs
(DCCA) and other divisions’ SRC surveys, as well as the non-SRC surveys in this information
collection, as these surveys have not been conducted since 2010 and are not expected to be
utilized in the next several years. The current total annual burden for the FR 3016 is estimated to
be 633 hours and would decrease by 475 hours to 158 hours with the proposed elimination of the
DCCA and other divisions’ SRC surveys, as well as non-SRC surveys.
Background and Justification
The Ongoing Intermittent Survey of Households was initiated in 1981. Over the past 33
years, the survey data have helped the Board understand consumer credit markets and consumer
behavior. The Board has used the data to meet the current analysis needs of the Board to
respond to mandates from the Congress, to prepare academic research papers, and to provide
information to the public.
To help meet current analysis needs, the Board sponsors monthly questions on household
expectations of future changes in inflation and house prices. The Board sponsors ongoing
questions on home mortgage refinancing three times a year and on automobile financing four
times a year. In past surveys, the Board has sponsored modules designed to measure the
response of household consumption to the 2008 economic stimulus payments and to the 2009 tax
credit and stimulus payments to retirees and other specified groups. The Board has also
sponsored questions on home purchase behavior, the rate of return households expect to receive
on their stock portfolios, and other topics. Analyses based on these data have been released to
the public through Federal Reserve Bulletin articles, speeches and testimony, and academic
research papers.
The Board also sponsors questions periodically in response to requests from Congress. In
2004, the Board sponsored surveys on consumer knowledge of and attitudes toward prescreened
credit card offers, privacy notices, debit card fees, and credit card disclosures. The data helped
the Board analyze issues raised by the Fair and Accurate Credit Transaction Act of 2003, the

Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLB Act), the Truth in Lending Act, and Regulation Z. In addition,
the data contributed to the Board’s ongoing research and policy work on the payments industry.
Description of the Information Collection
Division of Research and Statistics (R&S)
For each monthly SRC survey conducted, the SRC staff samples approximately 500
households from the universe of all private households in the coterminous United States. The
sample is designed to be representative of the national population of households. The SRC staff
conducts the interviews by telephone and respondent participation is voluntary. If the staff
cannot obtain interviews with selected respondents, they select replacement respondents until
they complete approximately 500 interviews. The Board drafts and edits the questions in
consultation with the SRC personnel. The SRC conducts a field pretest of the questions;
however, the Board is charged only for the time used on the actual survey.
The survey includes questions about inflation and house prices expectations monthly and
includes questions of special interest to the Board intermittently, when needed, as additions to
the SRC’s regular survey format. These questions relate to various aspects of consumer financial
behavior and the impact of regulations affecting consumer financial services. Other questions
cover consumer retail, depository institution, and corporate retail payment systems usage,
processing, and technology.
It is difficult to determine in advance the specific number of times the Board will ask the
SRC to obtain survey data since the need for data often arises from unpredictable legislative and
economic developments, or from unforeseen congressional requests for information. In the past,
the Board has participated in about six SRC surveys each year in addition to the standard R&S
inflation and house price expectation questions. Although the Board plans some surveys well in
advance, the survey’s principal value is the flexibility it provides the Board to respond quickly to
changing economic, legislative, and regulatory developments.
Division of Consumer and Community Affairs (DCCA)
DCCA does not currently hold its own contract with SRC. Previously, DCCA contracted
with SRC for use of the Survey of Households, starting in 1995. The survey results contributed
to a better understanding of consumer credit markets and consumer behavior. The questions
investigated timely subjects relating to the Board’s responsibilities for consumer credit, financial
services, and consumer leasing. Topics covered in past surveys include consumers’ use of
electronic banking services (October and November 1999; June and July 2003; and November
and December 2006), consumers’ response to privacy notices under the GLB Act (December
2004), and consumers’ use of store-value cards (March and April 2005). In the fall of 2010,
DCCA repeated the 2004 questions on privacy related to the GLB Act, initially collected by the
Board.
Survey data on these topics have been used by the Board to respond to information
requests by the Congress, to verify trends in potentially problematic banking practices, to

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provide information to the Board, and to prepare Board reports and testimony for the Congress.
Analyses based on these data have been released to the public through Federal Reserve Bulletin
articles and academic research papers.
Other Divisions
From time to time other divisions have conducted similar surveys. Surveys conducted by
vendors other than SRC were contracted separately. The Division of Reserve Bank Operations
and Payment Systems (RBOPS) and other divisions have conducted surveys that covered a broad
range of topics. For example, a survey on consumer retail payments has documented patterns of
consumer retail payment use and helped to examine the determinants of payment choice.
These surveys were designed to meet three goals – to document current patterns of
consumer retail payment use, to determine consumer attitudes toward different types of retail
payment instruments, and to examine the determinants of payment choice. The areas of inquiry
included the characteristics of different types of payment transactions (for example, cash, check,
debit card, credit card, and Automated Clearing House transactions) as well as the financial
characteristics of households and certain types of household accounts. The Board could not
anticipate what information would be needed. General approval was sought to conduct the
surveys as needed.
Non-SRC Surveys
Beginning in 2004, the Board conducted other consumer and household surveys as
needed not more than twice a year. These surveys were conducted as one-on-one interviews or
focus group sessions. Experience has shown that focused discussions of 12 to 15 respondents are
most productive. For example, topics related to personal finance choices including, the quality,
format, and understanding of the disclosures received from a financial institution about those
product choices, can be better addressed in small focus group discussions. The goal for such
focused discussions would be to identify what issues consumers want addressed and how they
would like to receive this information. The Board would work with the appropriate stakeholders
to recruit small groups of consumers to serve as voluntary respondents. The Board estimates
these discussions would take up to 90 minutes.
Proposed Revisions
The Board proposes to eliminate the DCCA and other divisions’ SRC surveys, as well as
non-SRC surveys, as these surveys have not been conducted since 2010 and are not expected to
be utilized in the next several years.
Time Schedule for Information Collection and Publication
The Board asks the SRC to obtain survey data on a monthly basis. When a survey is
conducted for the Board, the SRC staff codes and edits the interview responses and transmits the
data to the Board. The Board tabulates and analyzes the data.

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The Board does not publish the survey data that it obtains from the SRC. Survey
information is frequently cited, however, in published material such as professional journals, the
Federal Reserve Bulletin, and testimony and reports to the Congress. Under the terms of the
contract, the SRC routinely places individual respondent data, stripped of names and other
characteristics that would permit personal identification of respondents, in the public domain one
year after collection. The time schedule and publication of data collected from surveys, other
than those conducted by the SRC, would be detailed in the individual contract documents.
Legal Status
The Board’s Legal Division has determined that section 2A of the Federal Reserve Act
(FRA) requires that the Board and the Federal Open Market Committee maintain long run
growth of the monetary and credit aggregates commensurate with the economy’s long run
potential to increase production, so as to promote effectively the goals of maximum employment,
stable prices, and moderate long-term interest rates (12 U.S.C. 225a). Under section 12A of the
FRA, the Federal Open Market Committee is required to implement regulations relating to the
open market operations conducted by Federal Reserve Banks with a view to accommodating
commerce and business and with regard to their bearing upon the general credit situation of the
country (12 U.S.C. 263). Because the Board and the Federal Open Market Committee use the
information obtained on the FR 3016 to fulfill these obligations, these statutory provisions
provide the legal authorization for the collection of information on the FR 3016. The FR 3016 is
a voluntary survey.
No issue of confidentiality normally arises under the FR 3016, as names and any other
characteristics that would permit personal identification of respondents are not reported to the
Board. However, should the Board obtain such information, it would likely be exempt under
exemption 6 of the Freedom of Information Act (5 U.S.C. 552(b)(6)) to the extent that it includes
“personnel and medical files and similar files the disclosure of which would constitute a clearly
unwarranted invasion of personal privacy.”
Consultation Outside the Agency
On May 22, 2017, the Board published an initial notice in the Federal Register
(82 FR 23249) requesting public comment for 60 days on the proposal to extend, with revision,
the FR 3016. The comment period for this notice expired on July 21, 2017. The Board did not
receive any comments. On August 18, 2017, the Board published a final notice in the Federal
Register (82 FR 39433). The revisions will be implemented as proposed.
Estimate of Respondent Burden
The current annual respondent burden for the Board’s SRC and Non-SRC surveys is
estimated to be 633 hours, and would decrease by 475 hours to 158 hours with the proposed
revisions. The following table shows estimates of current annual respondent burden based on
past experiences. In total, the Board anticipates fielding 12 SRC surveys per year. These
reporting requirements represent less than 1 percent of the total Federal Reserve System
paperwork burden.

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Number of
respondents

FR 3016

Annual
frequency

Current
SRC surveys:
R&S
DCCA
Other divisions

500
500
500

12
2
3

Non-SRC surveys

100

2

500

12

Estimated
Estimated
average minutes annual burden
per response
hours

1.58
3
5
90

Total

158
50
125
300
633

Proposed
SRC surveys R&S
Change

1.58

158
(475)

The total cost to the public is estimated to decrease from $16,458 to $4,108 for the revised
FR 3016.1
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 contract between the SRC and the Board is to purchase 18 minutes of interview time
per person per year. Under the 2017 contract, the cost per minute is estimated to be $5,211, for a
minimum annual expenditure of $93,798. The purchase of interview time for subsequent years
would require Federal Reserve Board approval through normal budget procedures.

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The average consumer cost of $26 is estimated using data from the BLS Economic News Release (USDL-16-0462)
www.bls.gov/news.release/cewqtr.nr0.htm.

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