For a few weeks, my colleagues at the Atlanta Fed and I have been reaching out to leaders in the payments industry to assist them with responding to the Depository and Financial Institutions Payments Survey (DFIPS).

This every-three-years survey is an essential component of the Federal Reserve Payments Study (FRPS), which estimates the number and value of noncash payments in the US. Approximately 3,800 depository institutions—from the smallest to the largest, including commercial banks, savings institutions, and credit unions—have been invited to submit data for calendar year 2024.

New this year: the FRPS is collecting data on the number and value of instant payments, encompassing real-time payments and FedNow.

We're asking institutions to report if they send and receive instant payments, including the number and value of those payments. I expect this to be an important benchmark for understanding the evolution of a new payments technology and how it could possibly replace older ways to pay.

This is just one example of how, through robust participation in DFIPS, institutions support the Fed's ability to track and report important trends and industry participants' ability to use quantitative data to prepare for the future.

The depository institutions survey is delivered to respondents in an Excel workbook, with tabs for instant, automated clearing house, wire, check, and card payments as well as cash withdrawals and alternative payment initiation methods like mobile and person-to-person (p2p) payments. Institutions submit data via the Fed's secure encrypted data portal.

Data submissions are carefully guarded. No data from individual institutions is ever reported or used for anything aside from estimating national totals. The result: data that is hugely valuable to the payments industry, to policy makers, and to the public.

Institutions that respond to this survey receive an anonymized peer report that can help them benchmark their performance to that of similarly sized institutions. If your institution is invited, you can learn more at paymentsstudy.com.

Please reach out to me at the Atlanta Fed with any questions or suggestions for improvement.

Portrait photo of Claire Greene
By Claire Greene, center director, Atlanta Fed Payments Forum