It's become something of a tradition for this blog to offer a "what we're thankful for" theme at this time of year. This year, I'm thankful for the late-October release of the Survey of Consumer Finances
and am grateful for other data sources that everyone can use for free.
So, with gratitude, I'd like to share some data sources that are of particular interest to those of us working in payments and financial services.
Reports of the Bank for International Settlements Committee on Payments and Market Infrastructures (the BIS "Red Book") include data about payments for 26 countries (including the United States) and the euro area.
FRED, economic data from the St. Louis Fed, makes it possible to "download, graph, and track 823,000 US and international time series from 114 sources." FRED includes up-to-date data on currency in circulation and the Consumer Price Index.
Researchers rely on population statistics from the US Census Bureau. Census offers topical reports as well as resources for students—for example, Thanksgiving Fun Facts.
Fraud Facts, a dashboard by the Federal Trade Commission, lets you sort fraud prevalence by state by category (imposter scams, online shopping, and so on) and examine trends over time.
Reports of the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center (also known as the IC3) include annual summaries of internet crime since 2018 and separate reports of elder fraud.
The public data inventory at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau includes the consumer complaint database, a dashboard showing trends on financial product complaints that are voluntarily submitted along with associated responses by the service provider or financial institution.
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation's (FDIC) Quarterly Banking Profile provides the earliest comprehensive summary of financial results for all FDIC-insured institutions. Also from the FDIC, the Survey of Unbanked and Underbanked Households encompasses the day-to-day financial management and borrowing practices of all US households, whatever their banking status, and includes a rich set of demographic information.
And let's not forget the NY Fed's Survey of Consumer Expectations, surveys from the Atlanta Fed (Survey and Diary of Consumer Payment Choice, Business Inflation Expectations, CFO Survey, and Survey of Business Uncertainty), and the Federal Reserve Payments Study.
Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours.
By Claire Greene, payments risk expert in the Retail Payments Risk Forum at the Atlanta Fed