Agency Information Collection Activities: Submission for OMB Review; Comment Request

AGENCY:

Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC).

ACTION:

Agency information collection activities: Submission for OMB review; comment request.

SUMMARY:

The FDIC, as part of its obligations under the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, invites the general public and other Federal agencies to take this opportunity to comment on the request to approve a new information collections for its seventh biennial survey of households, which has been renamed the Survey of Household Use of Banking and Financial Services (“Household Survey”). This survey was previously named the FDIC National Survey of Unbanked and Underbanked Households and was assigned OMB Control No. 3064-0167. FDIC is seeking a new OMB Control Number for this version of the survey. The Household Survey is scheduled to be conducted in partnership with the U.S. Census Bureau as a supplement to its June 2021 Current Population Survey (CPS). The survey collects information on U.S. households' use of bank accounts and other transaction accounts including prepaid cards, online payment services, nonbank financial transaction services, and bank and nonbank credit. The results of these ongoing surveys will be published in the FDIC's How America Banks reports which help inform policymakers, bankers, and researchers about how households use, or don't use, the banking system. On December 2, 2020, the FDIC requested comment for 60 days on the proposed information collection. No comments were received. The FDIC hereby gives notice of its plan to submit to OMB a request to approve this information collection, and again invites comment on the information collection.

DATES:

Comments must be submitted on or before March 19, 2021.

ADDRESSES:

Interested parties are invited to submit written comments to the FDIC by any of the following methods:

• https://www.FDIC.gov/regulations/laws/federal.
• Email: comments@fdic.gov. Include the name and number of the collection in the subject line of the message.
• Mail: Manny Cabeza (202-898-3767), Regulatory Counsel, MB-3128, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, 550 17th Street NW, Washington, DC 20429.
• Hand Delivery: Comments may be hand-delivered to the guard station at the rear of the 17th Street Building (located on F Street), on business days between 7:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m.

Written comments and recommendations for the proposed information collection should be sent within 30 days of publication of this notice to www.reginfo.gov/public/do/PRAMain . Find this particular information collection by selecting “Currently under 30-day Review—Open for Public Comments” or by using the search function.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Manny Cabeza, Regulatory Counsel, 202-898-3767, mcabeza@fdic.gov, MB-3128, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, 550 17th Street NW, Washington, DC 20429.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Proposal to renew the following currently approved collection of information:

Title: Survey of Household Use of Banking and Financial Services.

OMB Number: 3064-NEW.

Frequency of Response: Once.

Affected Public: Individuals residing in U.S. Households.

Estimated Number of Respondents: 40,000.

Average time per response: 9 minutes per respondent.

Estimated Total Annual Burden: 6,000 hours.

General Description of Collection

The Survey of Household Use of Banking and Financial Services (“Household Survey”) supports the FDIC's mission of maintaining public confidence in the U.S. financial system. The Household Survey is also a key component of the FDIC's efforts to comply with a Congressional mandate contained in section 7 of the Federal Deposit Insurance Reform Conforming Amendments Act of 2005 (“Reform Act”) (Pub. L. 109-173), which calls for the FDIC to conduct ongoing surveys “on efforts by insured depository institutions to bring those individuals and families who have rarely, if ever, held a checking account, a savings account or other type of transaction or check cashing account at an insured depository institution (hereafter in this section referred to as the `unbanked') into the conventional finance system.” Section 7 further instructs the FDIC to consider several factors in its conduct of the surveys, including: (1) “What cultural, language and identification issues as well as transaction costs appear to most prevent `unbanked' individuals from establishing conventional accounts”; and (2) “what is a fair estimate of the size and worth of the “unbanked” market in the United States.”

The Household Survey collects information on bank account ownership which provides a factual basis for measuring the number and percentage of households that are unbanked.

The Household Survey is the only population-representative survey conducted at the national level that provides state-level estimates of the size and characteristics of unbanked households for all 50 states and the District of Columbia. The Household Survey also collects information from unbanked households about the reasons that they do not have a bank account and their interest in having a bank account.

Increasingly, financial products and services are provided by nonbanks, many through the use of a mobile phone app. Households are selecting different combinations of bank and nonbank financial products and services to meet their core banking needs. Consequently, the Household Survey has broadened its focus to include a wide range of bank and nonbank financial products and services and to collect information on whether and how households are using these in combination.

To obtain this information, the FDIC partners with the U.S. Census Bureau, which administers the Household Survey supplement (“FDIC Supplement') to households that participate in the CPS. The FDIC supplement has been administered every other year since January 2009. The previous survey questionnaires and survey results can be accessed through the following link: http://www.economicinclusion.gov/surveys/. Interested members of the public may obtain a copy of the proposed survey questionnaire on the following web page: https://www.fdic.gov/regulations/laws/federal/2021/2021-survey-of-household-use-of-banking-and-financial-services.pdf.

Consistent with the statutory mandate to conduct the surveys on an ongoing basis, the FDIC already has in place arrangements for conducting the seventh Household Survey as a supplement to the June 2021 CPS. On December 2, 2020, the FDIC requested comment for 60 days on this proposed information collection to conduct the Household Survey. The FDIC received no comments.

Request for Comment

Comments are again invited on: (a) Whether the collection of information is necessary for the proper performance of the FDIC's functions, including whether the information has practical utility; (b) the accuracy of the estimates of the burden of the information collection, including the validity of the methodology and assumptions used; (c) ways to enhance the quality, utility, and clarity of the information to be collected; and (d) ways to minimize the burden of the collection of information on respondents, including through the use of automated collection techniques or other forms of information technology. All comments will become a matter of public record.