Our PhD social scientists design and conduct foundational, policy-relevant research on consumer finance and household behavior.
For preliminary research and working papers, find the Office of Research’s independent papers on SSRN.
We collect data to monitor consumer credit market conditions.
This report contains the findings of the Bureau’s voluntary review of the final rule on the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act the Bureau issued in October 2015 (2015 HMDA Final Rule) and related amendments (collectively, the HMDA Rule).
This report explores the consumer financial profiles of Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) borrowers using the Bureau’s Making Ends Meet survey and its association with credit bureau data.
The annual Making Ends Meet survey report shows how consumers’ finances changed from 2021 to 2022. After increasing during the pandemic, financial health declined from 2021 to 2022 across several measures. The finances of Hispanic consumers and consumers under age 40 deteriorated rapidly between 2021 and 2022.
This report provides new insights into the automated saving rules consumers use (e.g., save on payday or with each purchase) and how these rules relate to the amount saved.
This Bureau Data Point article describes 2021 mortgage market activity and trends using data reported under the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA).
This report focuses on the consumer finances of rural Appalachians, and is the first in a series of reports focusing on the finances of rural consumers.
Required financial assistance is a form of community benefit involving medical care that is provided for free, or at a discount, to patients who cannot afford to pay.
This is part of a series of reports of consumer credit trends produced by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau using a longitudinal sample of approximately five million de-identified credit records from one of the three nationwide consumer reporting agencies.
New analysis of student loan borrowers to identify groups of borrowers who may encounter difficulties when the CARES Act federal payment suspension ends.
This report explores both the significant consumer impact of and industry reliance on credit card late fees.
This COVID-19 Special Issue Brief follows up on a May 2021 report that discussed the characteristics of mortgage borrowers, including demographics, during the COVID-19 pandemic. A significant number of homeowners have transitioned out of those forbearances over the last year due, in part, to improving economic conditions and the expiration of protections under these programs for many loans beginning in the Fall of 2021. Given these changes, our goal in this report is to better understand the characteristics of borrowers who remain in forbearance, as reported through January 2022.
New analysis in our Making Ends Meet series looks at financial security by examining how much consumers have in emergency savings and their financial profiles.
New analysis in our Making Ends Meet series shows consumers’ finances improved during the pandemic as pandemic policies protected consumers.
This report describes overdraft practices and outcomes at several thousand credit unions and banks in 2014 using data provided by core processors.
This report uses call report data to study the evolution of banks’ reliance on overdraft and non-sufficient fund fees since 2015.
This Consumer Credit Trends report describes patterns in dispute flags that appear on consumers’ credit reports.
This data point examines outcomes for subprime auto loans by lender type. It finds that borrowers with loans from some kinds of financial institutions pay higher interest rates, and experience vehicle repossessions more quickly after delinquency, than comparable borrowers with loans from other kinds of financial institutions.
A new analysis investigating the financial conditions of renters and homeowners before and during the COVID-19 pandemic.
This Bureau Data Point article describes 2020 mortgage market activity and trends using data reported under the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA).
This report is an update to CFPB’s May 2020 report and December 2020 blog regarding the effects of COVID-19 on credit applications (or credit inquiries). It examines the different paths of recovery for types of credit applications.
A new analysis investigating how characteristics of mortgages, borrowers, and lenders vary across AAPI subgroups, based on the 2020 Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) data.
This report explores the trends of commercial credit reporting on consumer credit.
A brief overview of the general lending patterns of HMDA reporters with the closed-end origination volumes around the new HMDA reporting threshold set by the 2020 HMDA Rule.
This report analyzes manufactured home loans, using two new fields in the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) data to understand the manufactured housing finance market and compare chattel loans and mortgages.
A new analysis in our Making Ends Meet survey series looks at how consumers use payday, auto title, and pawn loans.
