Research on consumer financial markets

CFPB report on student loan borrower survey, with findings on income-driven repayment (IDR), payment pause, return to repayment, debt relief, and loan forgiveness.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (“CFPB”) and the U.S. Department of Justice (“DOJ”) conducted matched-pair testing to test for and detect differential treatment of fictitious well-qualified Black and white small business owners seeking credit at large bank lenders in two counties.

This report provides new insights about distressed borrowers’ experiences with mortgage servicing and loss mitigation processes using data from the 2020 wave of the American Survey of Mortgage Borrowers (ASMB).

This report provides new insights on how price complexity may affect markets for consumer goods. We report on two laboratory experiments that investigated the effects of price complexity on market outcomes.

This report explores the differences across neighborhoods in the number of mortgage lenders originating loans, investigates the neighborhood-level correlates of this measure, and explores its associations with consumer-level outcomes.

This report provides new insights about consumers’ experiences with overdraft and NSF fees, and paints a broad picture of the financial circumstances of these consumers.

The annual Making Ends Meet survey report highlights new trends in household financial stability.

This Bureau Data Point article describes 2022 mortgage market activity and trends using data reported under the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA).

This report provides a broad look at consumer financial profiles in eight states in the southern region of the U.S., including credit scores, financial distress, medical collections, and other debt categories.

This report documents research findings on the impact of PACE financing on consumer financial outcomes from 2014 through 2020.

We study removals of medical collections from credit reports that occurred between 2012-2020 and find associated increases in credit score and credit availability.

This staff report provides a window into the financial circumstances faced by customers of Southern Bancorp Bank, a CDFI that serves some of the most economically underserved areas in the United States.

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.

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.

Charity care is one of the main forms of assistance hospitals offer to low-income consumers to help cover the cost of medical treatment.

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.