FR3067_20230328_omb

Supporting Statement for the
Payments Research Survey
(FR 3067; OMB No. 7100-0355)
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 Payments Research Survey (FR 3067; OMB No. 7100-0355). The Board
uses this collection to obtain information, as needed, on specific and time-sensitive issues,
related to payments research. Respondents may comprise depository institutions; financial and
nonfinancial businesses; for-profit and nonprofit enterprises; federal, state, and local
governments; individual consumers; or households (see full list in the Respondent Panel section
below). The Board may conduct various surveys under this collection, as needed , all of which
would be voluntary. The frequency and content of the questions depend on changing economic,
regulatory, supervisory, or legislative developments.1
The maximum estimated total annual burden for the FR 3067 is 30,000 hours, affecting a
maximum of 10,000 respondents.
Background and Justification
The Board oversees the Federal Reserve Banks’ provision of financial services to
depository institutions and fiscal agency services to the Treasury and other government agencies;
develops policies and regulations to foster the efficiency and integrity of the U.S. payments
system; works with other federal agencies on payments issues of joint responsibility; works with
other central banks and international organizations to collect information on and improve the
payment, clearing, and settlement system more broadly; and conducts research on payments
issues.
The Federal Reserve System has a long history of conducting surveys, including surveys
of depository institutions, financial and nonfinancial businesses and related entities, individual
consumers, and households. Often, the surveys have provided the only reliable source of data for
the subject covered by the surveys. Although these surveys have been driven by specific needs of
the Board, when published, their aggregated findings have also been used extensively by
researchers outside the Board and have been widely cited by the media.

Certain criteria apply to information collections conducted via the Board’s ad hoc clearance process. Such
information collections shall (1) be vetted by the Board’s clearance officer, as well as the Division director
responsible for the information collection, (2) display the OMB control number, (3) inform respondents that the
information collection has been approved, (4) be used only in such cases where response is voluntary, (5) not be
used to substantially inform regulatory actions or policy decisions, (6) be conducted only and exactly as described in
the OMB submission, (7) involve only noncontroversial subject matter that will not raise concerns for other Federal
agencies, (8) include a detailed justification of the effective and efficient statistical survey methodology (if
applicable), and (9) collect personally identifiable information (PII) only to the extent necessary (if collecting
sensitive PII, the form must display current Privacy Act notice). In addition, for each information collection
instrument, respondent burden will be tracked and submitted to OMB.
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Several functional areas of the Board occasionally need to gather data on a timely basis
from the public on their payment habits, economic condition, and financial relationships, as well
as their attitudes, perceptions, and expectations. The Board may have a particular need for data
during times of critical economic or regulatory change, or when issues of immediate concern
arise from Federal Reserve System committee initiatives and working groups or from Congress.
Completion of the full information collection approval process for a new survey under such
circumstances can pose a serious obstacle to collecting and processing data that are both accurate
and timely. Therefore, the Board will continue the Payments Research Survey to allow for the
timely collection of ad hoc data in such situations without the delay associated with the regular
approval process.
The scope of the FR 3067 is intended to provide the Board with the ability to respond
promptly to data collection needs related to its supervisory, regulatory, fiscal, and operational
responsibilities, as well as to support its payments research.
Since its creation, the Board has used the FR 3067 multiple times. For example, in 2014,
the Board conducted research to understand how consumers authenticate the $100 Federal
Reserve note. In 2018, the Board used the FR 3067 to conduct a collaborative research project
among four central banks focused on assessing user perception of genuine and counterfeit
banknotes and to assess how to increase recirculation of pennies. In 2021, the Board used the
FR 3067 in conjunction with the Federal Reserve Payments Study (FR 3066, OMB No.
7100-0351) to collect additional information related to the COVID-19 situation. That
information was used as input for a report showing how the use of payments changed as the
pandemic unfolded throughout 2020.2
Description of Information Collection
The FR 3067 is a series of surveys used to conduct research related to the Federal
Reserve System’s role in the payments system, including supervisory, regulatory, fiscal, or
operational responsibilities. The survey topics are time-sensitive and the questions of interest
vary with the focus of the survey. Because the relevant questions may change with each survey,
there is no fixed reporting form. For each survey, the Board prepares questions of specific topical
interest and then determines the relevant target group to contact. Examples of topics that could
be covered by the FR 3067 in the future may vary and include:
• general payments research,
• wholesale payments research,
• research related to clearing and settling transactions,
• retail payments research,
• payment card networks research, and
• currency and coin research.
The FR 3067 may be implemented through interviewer-mediated, face-to-face, or
telephone interviews; self-administered surveys using paper questionnaires, the telephone, or the
2

Developments in Noncash Payments for 2019 and 2020: Findings from the Federal Reserve Payments Study
(Washington: Federal Reserve Board, December 2021), https://www.federalreserve.gov/paymentsystems/december2021-findings-from-the-federal-reserve-payments-study.htm.

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Internet; focus group discussions; cognitive interviews; or other formats. The size of the samples
and the length of the data collection period may vary depending on the particular informational
needs.
Written qualitative questions or questionnaires may include categorical questions, yes-no
questions, ordinal questions, and open-ended questions. Written quantitative surveys may
include dollar amounts, percentages, numbers of items, interest rates, and other such information.
These data will only be collected if the request is time-sensitive or adequate data of this sort is
not available from any other source. These quantitative surveys would be used to enable the
Board to collect a limited amount of data from a defined set of participants in the event of an
immediate and critical need for specific information. These surveys would be used for data that
are not collected on any other reporting form or on the same frequency as other substantively
similar data. Less structured information collection studies, such as focus groups or cognitive
interviews, may use a set of qualitative and quantitative questions as a guide but could allow a
more extended discussion of the topic to evolve.
In its assessment of the need to perform a survey under the FR 3067, the Board
determines if the information to be collected is available by other means or sources within the
Federal Reserve System.
Surveys may be coordinated and conducted by the Board with assistance from Reserve
Bank staff as part of other ongoing research or regulatory activities, or through a private firm
chosen in a competitive bidding process. 3 Research instruments could be developed by the
Federal Reserve System alone or jointly with a firm selected by the Federal Reserve System. As
necessary, the firm would be responsible for testing the survey procedures, following the
sampling protocol established by the Federal Reserve System alone or jointly with the firm,
conducting the survey as specified by the Federal Reserve System, preparing data files
containing the responses, computing analysis weights, and documenting all survey procedures.
Data editing and analysis of the results would be conducted either solely by the Federal Reserve
System or jointly with the selected firm. In determining how to conduct a particular survey, the
Federal Reserve System considers the resources required.
Respondent Panel
Respondents for surveys conducted under the FR 3067 may consist of depository
institutions, including bank holding companies, savings and loan holding companies, Edge or
agreement corporations, and intermediate holding companies and agencies of foreign banks,
financial and nonfinancial businesses, for profit and nonprofit enterprises, federal, state, and
local governments, individual consumers, or households.
Frequency
The FR 3067 is an ad hoc collection. Surveys conducted under the FR 3067 are
conducted as needed.
3

Board staff would generally ask for assistance from Reserve Bank staff with expertise in data collection
applications and processes, or with knowledge of the topic to be researched.

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Time Schedule for Information Collection
The time schedule for the distribution of, response to, and collection of data for each
survey is determined during the planning phase prior to the distribution of the survey instrument.
Public Availability of Data
Before data collection begins, staff from the Federal Reserve System will explain to
respondents the purpose of the survey and how the data collected will be used. The Federal
Reserve System may choose to keep survey data confidential, depending upon the n ature of the
data collection. The Federal Reserve System decides whether to publish survey data that it
obtained from respondents and informs them, before publication, if the data will be confidential
or published on an individual or aggregate basis. Aggregate survey information may be cited in
published material such as staff studies or working papers, professional journals, the Federal
Reserve Bulletin, testimony and reports to the Congress, or other vehicles.
Legal Status
The Board uses the information obtained through the FR 3067 to discharge its statutory
responsibilities, including those under the following statutes:
• Section 609 of the Expedited Funds Availability Act (12 U.S.C. § 4008(c)), authorizing
the Board to prescribe such regulations as it may determine appropriate to carry out its
responsibility to regulate the payment system,
• Title VIII of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act
(12 U.S.C. § 5461(b)), authorizing the Board to promote uniform standards for the
management of risks by systemically important financial market utilities and conduct of
systemically important payment, clearing, and settlement activities by financial
institutions, as well as providing an enhanced role in the supervision of risk manageme nt
standards for systemically important financial market utilities and systemically important
payment, clearing, and settlement activities by financial institutions,
• Sections 904 and 920 of the Electronic Fund Transfer Act (15 U.S.C. §§ 1693b and
1693o-2), authorizing the Board to prescribe regulations relating to interchange fees for
electronic debit transactions and require any debit card issuer or payment card network to
provide the Board with such information as may be necessary to carry out its
responsibility to regulate interchange fees for electronic debit transactions,
• Section 7 of the Bank Service Company Act (12 U.S.C. § 1867), authorizing the Board to
issue such regulations and orders as may be necessary to administer and carry out the
purposes of the Bank Services Company Act and prevent evasions thereof,
• Section 15 of the Check Clearing for the 21 st Century Act (12 U.S.C. § 5014), authorizing
the Board to prescribe such regulations as it determines necessary to implement, prevent
circumvention or evasion of, or facilitate compliance with the Expedited Funds
Availability Act, as amended, and
• Sections 2A, 11, 11A, 13, and 16 of the Federal Reserve Act (12 U.S.C. §§ 225a, 248,
248a, 342, 360, and 248-1), inter alia, requiring the Board to maintain long run growth of
the monetary and credit aggregates commensurate with the economy’s long run potential

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to increase production, so as to promote effectively the goals of maximum employment,
stable prices, and moderate long-term interest rates.
The FR 3067 surveys are voluntary.
Individual respondents may request confidential treatment in accordance with the Board’s
Rules Regarding Availability of Information. 4 Requests for confidential treatment of information
are reviewed on a case-by-case basis. To the extent information provided on the FR 3067 is
nonpublic commercial or financial information, which is both customarily and actually treated as
private by the respondent, the information may be protected from disclosure pursuant to
exemption 4 of the FOIA (5 U.S.C. § 552(b)(4)).
Consultation Outside the Agency
There has been no consultation outside the Federal Reserve System.
Public Comments
On September 15, 2022, the Board published an initial notice in the Federal Register (87
FR 56677) requesting public comment for 60 days on the extension, without revision, of the
FR 3067. The comment period for this notice expired on November 14, 2022. The Board did not
receive any comments. The Board adopted the extension, without revision, of the FR 3067 as
originally proposed. On January 27, 2023, the Board published a final notice in the Federal
Register (88 FR 5340).
Estimate of Respondent Burden
As shown in the table below, the estimated total annual burden for the FR 3067 is 30,000
hours.5 The number of respondents is based on the average number of responses anticipated per
survey conducted. Because the surveys are event-generated, it is not possible to predict exactly
how many surveys would be conducted in a given year. For purposes of this estimate, it is
assumed that surveys would be conducted no more than two times per year.
The average burden per response associated with the FR 3067 is estimated to vary from
one to three hours per response, depending on the number and complexity of the survey
questions. The Board estimates respondents would take, on average, 1.5 hours to complete each
survey. These reporting requirements represent less than 1 percent of the Board’s total
paperwork burden.

4

12 CFR 261.17.
Burden estimates for any Federal agencies that may be surveyed are not included in this figure because they are not
subject to the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA).
5

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FR 3067
Private sector
Individual consumers or
households
State and local government
agencies

Estimated
number of
respondents6

Estimated
annual
frequency

Estimated
average hours
per response

Estimated
annual burden
hours

4,300

2

1.5

12,900

5,500

2

1.5

16,500

200

2

1.5

600

Total

30,000

The estimated total annual cost to the private sector and state and local government
agencies for the FR 3067 is $816,075.7 The estimated total annual cost to individual consumers
or households for the FR 3067 is $462,000.8
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 estimated cost to the Federal Reserve System for the surveys depends on the size of
the sample, number of questions asked, type and complexity of the questions asked, frequency of
the surveys, and whether staff from the Federal Reserve System or a private firm conducted the
surveys. The Board anticipates that, in many cases, internal staff would conduct the surveys as
part of their normal research activities, and would therefore not result in additional staffing costs.
If, however, the Board determined that a private firm is needed to conduct the surveys, the Board
estimates that associated costs may range from $25 to $100 per respondent, depending on the
level of involvement of the private firm.

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Of the private sector respondents, 4,050 are considered small entities as defined by the Small Business
Administration (i.e., entities with less than $850 million in total assets), https://www.sba.gov/document/supporttable-size-standards. There are no special accommodations given to minimize the burden on small institutions.
7
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 $21, 45% Financial Managers at
$74, 15% Lawyers at $71, and 10% Chief Executives at $102). Hourly rates for each occupational group are the
(rounded) mean hourly wages from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), Occupational Employment and Wages,
May 2021, published March 31, 2022, https://www.bls.gov/news.release/ocwage.t01.htm. Occupations are defined
using the BLS Standard Occupational Classification System, https://www.bls.gov/soc/.
8
The average consumer cost of $28 is estimated using data from the BLS, Occupational Employment and Wages,
May 2021, published March 31, 2022 https://www.bls.gov/news.release/ocwage.t01.htm.

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