FR3063_20240625_omb

Supporting Statement for the
Government-Administered, General-Use Prepaid Card Survey
(FR 3063; OMB No. 7100-0343)
Summary
The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (Board), under authority
delegated by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), has extended for three years,
without revision, the Government-Administered, General-Use Prepaid Card Survey (FR 3063;
OMB No. 7100-0343). The FR 30631 survey collects data from issuers of governmentadministered, general-use prepaid cards, including information on the prepaid card program,
number of cards outstanding, card funding, purchase transactions, interchange fees, and
cardholder fees. The FR 3063 survey is mandatory. The Board uses data from the FR 3063
survey to support an annual report to Congress on the prevalence of use of general-use prepaid
cards in federal, state, and local government-administered payment programs and on the
interchange and cardholder fees charged with respect to such use of such cards.
The estimated total annual burden for the FR 3063 is 220 hours. The form and
instructions are available for survey participants on the Board’s public website at
https://www.federalreserve.gov/debitcardsurveys.2
Background and Justification
Section 1075(a) of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act
(Dodd-Frank Act) added section 920(a)(7) to the Electronic Fund Transfer Act (EFTA) to
require that the Board provide annually a report to Congress regarding the prevalence of the use
of general-use prepaid cards in federal, state, and local government-administered payment
programs, and the interchange and cardholder fees charged with respect to the use of such
prepaid cards.3 Section 1075(a) of the Dodd-Frank Act also added section 920(a)(3) to the ETFA
to provide the Board with authority to require card issuers to respond to information requests as
may be necessary to carry out the provisions of the section. Pursuant to this authority, the Board
adopted regulations setting debit card interchange fee standards and reporting requirements in
Debit Card Interchange Fees and Routing (Regulation II) (12 CFR Part 235). The FR 3063
survey is used to collect information from card issuers on the usage of general-use prepaid cards
in federal, state, or local government-administered payment programs, and the interchange fees
and cardholder fees charged with respect to the use of such general-use prepaid cards. The
information collected on the FR 3063 survey is not available from other sources. The Board
annually evaluates the data collected in an effort to further improve efficiency and reduce
respondent burden.

1

The Board is changing the internal Agency Tracking Number for the Government -Administered, General-Use
Prepaid Card Survey from “FR 3063a” to “FR 3063.”
2 The Board makes the annual collection form publicly available when it publishes the report. The most recent
public version of the form is available at
https://www.federalreserve.gov/paymentsystems/files/FR3063a_government_issuer_survey_2022.pdf .
3 15 U.S.C. § 1693o-2(a)(7)(D).

Historically, the Board administered two surveys as part of the FR 3063: (1) the Issuer
Survey, previously known as the FR 3063a and the current FR 3063, which is mandatory and
collects information from issuers for government-administered general-use prepaid card
programs about the program they administer and (2) the Government Survey, the nowdiscontinued FR 3063b, which was a voluntary survey that collected information from
governments about their government-administered general-use prepaid card programs. In 2021,
the Board revised and streamlined the Issuer Survey (prior FR 3063a/current FR 3063) and
discontinued the Government Survey (FR 3063b). The FR 3063b was discontinued because the
information provided by card issuers in responding to the Issuer Survey provides sufficient data
on state programs.
Description of Information Collection
Regulation II requires each issuer, as defined under the regulation and subject to certain
exceptions,4 to submit information about debit card (including general-use prepaid card)
transactions in a form prescribed by the Board. 5 The FR 3063 survey requests information on
general-use prepaid cards (associated with accounts domiciled in the United States, the District
of Columbia, and U.S. territories) issued under programs administered by a federal, state, or
local government agency, except for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).
The FR 3063 survey is mandatory for issuers that authorize general-use prepaid cards for federal,
state, or local government-administered payment programs.
The survey collects information on government-administered payment programs for
which the depository institution is the issuer of general-use prepaid cards. The cards issued
pursuant to government-administered payment programs may be either reloadable or nonreloadable.

I.
II.
III.
IV.
V.

The FR 3063 survey comprises five sections:
Program Information: Respondents report the number and name of governmentadministered, general-use prepaid card programs they administer.
Card Funding: Respondents report information on the number of cards outstanding and
the value of funds loaded into prepaid card accounts.
Purchase Transactions: Respondents report information on the volume and value of
settled purchase transactions by the prepaid card accounts.
Issuer Revenue: Interchange Fees: Respondents report information on interchange fee
revenue received on settled purchase transactions by the prepaid card accounts.
Issuer Revenue: Cardholder Fees: Respondents report information on fees assessed to
cardholders.

The respondents complete and submit the FR 3063 survey electronically through the
Debit Card Survey System, a dedicated online portal developed and supported by the Board. The
4

See 12 CFR 235.8(a); 12 CFR 235.5(a). Issuers include any person that authorizes the use of a debit card to
perform an electronic debit transaction. 12 CFR 235.2(k). “Persons” are defined to encompass both natural persons
and organizations (including a corporation, government agency, estate, trust, partnership, proprietorship, cooperative
or association) 12 CFR 235.2(n).
5 12 CFR 235.8(b).

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Board issues unique access credentials to respondents through email. This enables the Board and
respondents to provide the required data on a timely basis and makes the data accessible by
Board stakeholders for reporting purposes. The Board understands that respondents use
information technology to comply with these provisions, including the use of electronic
submission through email.
Respondent Panel
The FR 3063 panel comprises issuers of government-administered, general-use prepaid
cards.
Frequency and Time Schedule
The FR 3063 survey is submitted annually. The Board is required to provide an annual
report to the Congress on government-administered, general-use prepaid cards. The Board sends
out the FR 3063 survey to issuers by mid-February of each year, and requests that the surveys be
submitted to the Board within 60 calendar days.
Public Availability of Data
The Board includes aggregate FR 3063 survey data in an annual Report to the Congress
on Government-Administered, General-Use Prepaid Cards, which is also posted on the Board’s
public website, https://www.federalreserve.gov/publications/government-prepaid-executive.htm.
Legal Status
The issuer survey is authorized by section 920(a)(7) of the EFTA (15 U.S.C. § 1693o2(a)(7)), which was added by section 1075(a) of the Dodd -Frank Act. This subsection requires
the Board to submit an annual report to Congress on the prevalence of the use of general-use
prepaid cards in federal, state, or local government-administered payment programs and the
interchange transaction fees and cardholder fees charged with respect to the use of such generaluse prepaid cards (15 U.S.C. § 1693o-2(a)(7)(D)). Subsection 920(a)(3) of the EFTA provides
the Board with authority to require issuers to provide information to enable the Board to carry
out the provisions of the section (15 U.S.C. § 1693o-2(a)(3)(B)).6 The obligation of issuers to
respond to the survey is mandatory.

Sections 235.8(a) and (b) of the Board’s Regulation II (12 CFR 235.8(a) and (b)), implements this reporting
requirement and requires the submission of information about debit card transactions (including general-use prepaid
card transactions) by issuers in a form prescribed by the Board. This reporting requirement has been carried out in
the form of three surveys collected by the Board. In addition to the FR 3063 survey, the Debit Card Issuer Survey
(FR 3064a) and Payment Card Network Survey (FR 3064b) (OMB No. 7100-0344) collect information on the
volume and value of debit card transactions (including general-use prepaid card transactions), associated interchange
fees, payments, and incentives paid by networks to issuers from: (1) issuers of debit cards (including issuers of
general-use prepaid cards) that, together with affiliates, have assets of $10 billion or more (FR 3064a survey) and
(2) payment card networks (FR 3064b survey). However, the FR 3064a and FR 3064b surveys are separately
reviewed and accounted for under the Paperwork Reduction Act.
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The Board generally regards the information collected from each individual issuer on the
FR 3063 survey as confidential commercial and financial information, which is protected by
exemption 4 of the Freedom of Information Act (5 U.S.C. § 552(b)(4)). The Board, however,
may publicly release aggregate or summary information in a way that does not reveal the
individual issuer.
Consultation Outside the Agency
There has been no consultation outside the Federal Reserve System.
Public Comments
On November 14, 2023, the Board published an initial notice in the Federal Register (88
FR 78023) requesting public comment for 60 days on the extension, without revision, of the
FR 3063. The comment period for this notice expired on January 16, 2024. The Board did not
receive any comments. The Board adopted the extension, without revision, of the FR 3063 as
originally proposed. On April 3, 2024, the Board published a final notice in the Federal Register
(89 FR 23016).
Estimate of Respondent Burden
As shown in the table below, the estimated total annual burden for the FR 3063 is 220
hours. The Board estimates that approximately 22 depository institutions would take, on average,
10 hours each to complete the FR 3063 survey. The number of respondents typically range from
15 to 22 based on the average number of FR 3063 survey filings received since 2018. The
number of respondents can increase or decrease depending on factors such as changes in
government funding or programs, business consolidations, or exiting the business in general.
Estimated average hour per response can vary, as respondents may have immediate access to the
requested data or be required to request data from third party services. These reporting
requirements represent less than 1 percent of the Board’s total paperwork burden.

FR 3063
Current

Estimated
number of
respondents7

Estimated
annual
frequency

Estimated
average hours
per response

Estimated
annual burden
hours

22

1

10

220

7

Of these respondents, 5 are considered small entities as defined by the Small Business Administration (i.e., entities
with less than $850 million in total assets). Size standards effective March 17, 2023. See
https://www.sba.gov/document/support-table-size-standards. There are no special accommodations given to mitigate
the burden on small institutions.

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The estimated total annual cost to the public for the FR 3063 is $15,367.8
Sensitive Questions
This information collection contains no questions of a sensitive nature, as defined by
OMB guidelines.
Estimate of Cost to the Federal Reserve System
The estimated cost to the Federal Reserve System for collecting and processing this
information collection is $125,300.

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Total cost to the responding public is estimated using the following formula: total burden hours, multiplied by the
cost of staffing, where the cost of staffing is calculated as a percent of time for each occupational group multiplied
by the group’s hourly rate and then summed (30% Office & Administrative Support at $23, 45% Financial
Managers at $84, 15% Lawyers at $85, and 10% Chief Executives at $124). Hourly rates for each occupational
group are the (rounded) mean hourly wages from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), Occupational Employment
and Wages, May 2023, published April 3, 2024, https://www.bls.gov/news.release/ocwage.t01.htm . Occupations are
defined using the BLS Standard Occupational Classification System, https://www.bls.gov/soc/.

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