Making Ends Meet in 2023: Insights from the Making Ends Meet Survey
The annual Making Ends Meet survey report highlights new trends in household financial stability.
Research on consumer financial markets
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.
Featured data
We collect data to monitor consumer credit market conditions.
Making Ends Meet in 2022: Insights from the CFPB Making Ends Meet survey
The annual Making Ends Meet survey report shows how consumers’ finances changed from 2021 to 2022.
Consumer Finances in Rural Appalachia
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.
Credit card late fees
This report explores both the significant consumer impact of and industry reliance on credit card late fees.
Consumer finances during the pandemic: Insights from the Making Ends Meet Survey
New analysis in our Making Ends Meet series shows consumers’ finances improved during the pandemic as pandemic policies protected consumers.
Disputes on Consumer Credit Reports
This Consumer Credit Trends report describes patterns in dispute flags that appear on consumers’ credit reports.
Consumer use of payday, auto title, and pawn loans: Insights from the Making Ends Meet Survey
A new analysis in our Making Ends Meet survey series looks at how consumers use payday, auto title, and pawn loans.
Balancing savings and debt: Findings from an online experiment
The Office of Research released a research brief summarizing the results of an online experiment exploring how the amount of available savings may influence decisions about using savings to pay down credit card debt.
Quarterly Consumer Credit Trends: Payment Amount Furnishing & Consumer Reporting
This report explores the prevalence of actual payment information in consumer credit reporting.
Special issue brief: The early effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on consumer credit
This second COVID-19 Special Issue Brief describes trends in delinquency rates, payment assistance, credit access, and account balance measures with a focus on the period since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Quarterly Consumer Credit Trends: Recent trends in debt settlement and credit counseling
Quarterly consumer credit trends reports focus on a specific consumer financial product or issue using a longitudinal, nationally representative sample of de-identified credit records maintained by a nationwide consumer reporting agency.
The early effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on credit applications
This report uses the Bureau’s Consumer Credit Panel to study the early effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on credit applications overall, by credit score group, and across the states.
Data point: Credit card revolvers
This eleventh data point examines how often credit card balances are revolved on an account, or borrowed, how long balances are revolved, and how regularly they are paid down.
Data point: Final student loan payments and broader household borrowing
Our data point reports are prepared by our Office of Research to provide an evidence-based perspective on consumer financial markets, consumer behavior, and regulations to inform the public discourse.
Quarterly consumer credit trends: End-of-year credit card borrowing
Quarterly consumer credit trends reports focus on a specific consumer financial product or issue using a longitudinal, nationally-representative sample of de-identified credit records maintained by a nationwide credit reporting company.