3170-XXXX Credit Card Collection Supporting Statement part A_ final

CONSUMER FINANCIAL PROTECTION BUREAU
PAPERWORK REDUCTION ACT SUBMISSION
INFORMATION COLLECTIONS REQUEST
SUPPORTING STATEMENT PART A CONSUMER AND
COLLEGE CREDIT CARD AGREEMENT (OMB CONTROL
NUMBER: 3170-XXXX)

OMB TERMS OF CLEARANCE: Not applicable. This is a request for a new OMB control
number.
ABSTRACT:
Sections 204 and 305 of the Credit Card Accountability Responsibility and Disclosure Act of 2009
(CARD Act) and 12 C.F.R. §§ 226.57(d) and 226.58 require card issuers to submit to the Consumer
Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB):
 agreements between the issuer and a consumer under a credit card account for an open-end
consumer credit plan; and
 any college credit card agreements to which the issuer is a party and certain additional
information regarding those agreements.
The data collections enable the CFPB to provide consumers with a centralized depository for consumer
and college credit card agreements. It also presents information to the public regarding the arrangements
between financial institutions and institutions of higher education.

PART A. JUSTIFICATION
1. Circumstances Necessitating the Data Collection
Pursuant to the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (“Dodd-Frank Act”),
Section 502(a) of the CARD Act requires periodic reviews of the consumer credit card market, within the
limits of the Bureau’s existing resources available for reporting purposes. As enacted in 2009, the CARD
Act directed that the Federal Reserve Board (FRB) conduct this review. The CFPB and the FRB
concluded in May 2012 that responsibility for this review will be transferred to the CFPB, along with the
general transfer of rulemaking authority for the Truth in Lending Act.
As set forth in the statute, these collections seek to examine developments in the consumer credit card
marketplace, including:
 effectiveness of disclosure of terms, fees, and other expenses of credit card plans;
 adequacy of protections against unfair or deceptive acts or practices relating to credit card plans.
Consumer Credit Card Agreement Quarterly Submission

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On July 21, 2011, the CFPB assumed responsibility under the CARD Act for quarterly collecting credit
card agreements in a publicly available database. Pursuant to 12 CFR 1026.58; 15 USC 1632(d)(2)-(3);
collection is mandated for all issuers (subject to de minimus exceptions), and scope of mandate may
require submission of multiple different agreements for each issuer.
College Credit Card Agreement Annual Submission
This collection is made pursuant to the CARD Act requirement: 12 C.F.R. § 1026.57(d); 15 U.S.C. §
1637(r); 76 FR 79768 (Dec. 22, 2011).
Every year, the CARD Act requires the CFPB to collect the agreements in place between credit card
issuers and institutions of higher education, as well as summary data about the credit cards offered
pursuant to these agreements.
The CARD Act requires the CFPB to submit to Congress, and to make available to the public, an annual
report that lists information submitted to the Bureau concerning agreements between credit card issuers
and institutions of higher education or certain affiliated organizations.1 Affiliated organizations include
fraternities, sororities, alumni associations, or foundations affiliated with or related to an institution of
higher education. CFPB provides this centralized depository on its website and also publishes an annual
report each year based upon the submitted data.
Similarly to the quarterly credit card agreement submission, this role was also inherited from the Federal
Reserve Board.
The annual submission of college credit card agreements has previously approved by the Office of
Management and Budget, and bears OMB approval number 7100-0199.

2. Use of the Information
Consumer Credit Card Agreement Quarterly Submission
Every quarter, the CARD Act requires the CFPB to collect and post to CFPB’s website credit card
agreements from issuers with over 10,000 accounts. Financial institutions must submit consumer credit
card agreements quarterly by the first business day on or after January 31, April 30, July 31, and October
31 of each year, as described in 12 C.F.R. § 226.58.
Consumer agreement submissions generally must reflect the consumer agreements an issuer offered to the
public as of the last business day of the preceding calendar quarter. For example, the submission due on
January 31, 2014 (the first business day on or after January 31, 2014) must reflect the consumer
agreements your institution offered to the public as of December 31, 2013 (the last business day of the
fourth calendar quarter).
The CFPB is required by law to make all such agreements “easily accessible and retrievable.” They are
posted on CFPB’s site: http://www.consumerfinance.gov/credit-cards/agreements/. The agreements can

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (the “CFPB”) submits this report in accordance with Section 305 of the
Credit Card Accountability Responsibility and Disclosure Act of 2009 (the “ CARD Act”), Pub. L. No. 111–24, §
305(a), 123 Stat. 1734, 1749-50 (2009).
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1

be filtered by issuer and the text is fully searchable. This facilitates consumers’ ability to find their credit
card agreement and compare it to others.
College Credit Card Agreement Annual Submission
Every year, the CARD Act requires the CFPB to collect the agreements in place between credit card
issuers and institutions of higher education, as well as summary data about the credit cards offered
pursuant to these agreements.
College agreements must be submitted annually by the first business day on or after March 31 of each
year, as described in 12 C.F.R. § 226.57(d). For example, if an institution was a party to a college credit
card agreement in effect at any time during calendar year 2013, the agreement and information about that
agreement must be sent to the CFPB after December 31, 2013, and no later than March 31, 2014.
The agreements between the financial institution and the institution of higher education and information
about those agreements are considered nonconfidential. The CFPB will make these agreements and the
related information available to the public as part of an annual report.
Agreements between a financial institution and an institution of higher education and information
about those agreements are considered nonconfidential because:
 Section 304 of the Credit CARD Act and 12 C.F.R. § 226.57(b) require institutions of higher
education to disclose these agreements publicly; and
 Section 305 of the Credit CARD Act requires the Board to submit to Congress and make
available to the public an annual report that lists certain information about each agreement
submitted.
This information includes:
 the total amount of payments by your institution during the year;
 the specific terms of the agreement under which payments are calculated;
 the number of accounts opened during the year;
 the total number of accounts that were open at the end of the year; and
 a list of agreements terminated during the calendar year including the name, type, and location of
the institution of higher education.

This data collection is intended to bring greater transparency to the college and university credit
card market. The CARD Act prohibits credit card issuers from extending credit without
assessing the consumers’ ability to pay, specifically persons under the age of 21. This collection
is vital to the ongoing regulatory surveillance of this potentially risky market segment. The
collection also provides consumers, including college students, clear and comparable information
regarding their credit cards.
The college credit card data is posted at https://data.consumerfinance.gov/Government/College-CreditCard-Agreements/r963-hvsf.

3. Use of Information Technology
The CFPB changed the submission method from faxing PDF/handwritten forms to emailing Excel forms
electronically in July 2012. This change has made the form submission efficient and timely and reduced
logistical burden.
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4. Efforts to Identify Duplication
This data is not otherwise available from any other source.

5. Efforts to Minimize Burdens on Small Entities
None of the entities affected by this data collection can be classified as small entities.

6. Consequences of Less Frequent Collection and Obstacles to Burden Reduction
To meet statutory requirements, the CFPB is required to collect these data quarterly and annually and
make the information available to the Congress and the general public. Without CFPB’s quarterly
collection of agreements, consumers may not have access to the latest and up-to-date agreement
disclosure. Also, without this data the public would be hindered in their ability to comparison shop for
credit cards and competition would thereby be harmed. Further, the Card Act requires CFPB to submit

to Congress and make available to the public an annual report that lists certain information
regarding the arrangements between credit card issuers and institutions of higher education.
7. Circumstances Requiring Special Information Collection
The Bureau notes that we request that entities respond within 10 business days so that we can provide this
information in its entirety to general public in a timely fashion. However we appreciate that this is not
always possible for all institutions, and note that, comporting with OMB rules regarding information
collections, an entity has up to 30 days to make the required response.There are no special circumstances
requiring special information collections. These collections of information is otherwise consistent with
the applicable guidelines contained in 5 CFR 1320.5(d) (2).

8. Consultation Outside the Agency
In accordance with 5 CFR 1320.8(d)(1), the Bureau has published a notice Federal Register allowing the
public 60 days to comment on this collection of information. Further and in accordance with 5 CFR
1320.5(a)(1)(iv), the Bureau published a notice in the Federal Register allowing the public 30 days to
comment on the submission of this information collection request to the Office of Management and
Budget.

9. Payments or Gifts to Respondents
None.

10. Assurances of Confidentiality
The information collected will be made publicly available and no assurances of confidentiality are given
to respondents. No personally identifying information is collected, and the Bureau will treat all
information received consistent with its confidentiality regulations at 12 CFR Part 1070.20 et seq.

11. Justification for Sensitive Questions
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This information collection does not include questions of a sensitive nature.

12. Estimated Burden of Information Collection

Information Collection
Requirement
Quarterly Credit Card
Agreement Submission
Annual College Credit
Card Agreement
Submission
Totals:

No. of
Respondents

Frequency

Average
Response Time
(hours)
.25

Annual Burden
Hours

400

4

Number of
Annual
Respones
1,600

30

1

30

1

30

430

//////////////

1,630

////////////////////

430

The proposed annual burden for the quarterly credit card agreement submission would be 400 hours. The
CFPB is required to collect the agreements from at least 350 credit card issuers; typically the number of
respondents fluctuates around 400. Since these agreements collected are readily available by the card
issuers (and usually already publicly disclosed), this requirement imposes little burden.
Associated Labor Costs:
Quarterly agreement credit card agreement submission
We estimate the labor costs to submit the credit card agreements quarterly to be $20,840 based on the
following formula: percentage of staff time, multiplied by annual burden hours, multiplied by hourly rate
(30% Administrative Services Manager @ $43, 70% Operations Manager @ $56,). Hourly rate estimates
for each occupational group are averages using data from the Bureau of Labor and Statistics (BLS),
Occupational Employment and Wages, May 2013, http://www.bls.gov/bls/blswage.htm. Occupations are
defined using the BLS Occupational Classification System, http://www.bls.gov/soc/.

The proposed annual burden for the annual college credit card agreement submission would be
30 hours. Typically the number of respondents fluctuates around 30. Since these agreements collected
are readily available by the card issuers (and usually already publicly disclosed), this requirement imposes
little burden.
Annual Credit Card Agreement submission
We estimate the labor costs to submit the annual college credit card agreement to be $1,605 based on the
following formula: percentage of staff time, multiplied by annual burden hours, multiplied by hourly rate
(30% Administrative Services Manager @ $43, 50% Operations Manager @ $56, and 20% Legal
Counsel @ $63). Hourly rate estimates for each occupational group are averages using data from the
Bureau of Labor and Statistics (BLS), Occupational Employment and Wages, May 2013,
http://www.bls.gov/bls/blswage.htm. Occupations are defined using the BLS Occupational Classification
System, http://www.bls.gov/soc/.

13. Estimated Total Annual Cost Burden to Respondents or Recordkeepers
Since this data is already collected by the respondent in their ordinary course of business, reporting it on
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400

this form imposes no significant additional costs on them.

14. Estimated Cost to the Federal Government
None. The CFPB incurs no unique costs as a result of this data collection.

15. Program Changes or Adjustments
Since this is a request for a new OMB control number, all the burden associated with this collection of
information is considered to be a program change. Further, theses statutorily required collections have
been conducted by the Bureau without a currently valid OMB control number. Therefore, the program
change will be classified as “Change due to PRA Violation.”

16. Plans for Tabulation, Statistical Analysis, and Publication
Individual respondent data are collected and then published on CFPB’s public web site. There is no
complex analytical techniques being used. The final presentation of the information does include basic
search, filter and sort functionalities.

17. Display of Expiration Date
When assigned by OMB, the Bureau plans to display the expiration date for OMB approval of the
information collection on all instruments. The OMB control number and expiration date associated
with this PRA submission will be displayed on the Federal government’s electronic PRA
docket at www.reginfo.gov,

18. Exceptions to the Certification Requirement
The Bureau certifies that this collection of information is consistent with the requirements of 5
CFR 1320.9, and the related provisions of 5 CFR 1320.8(b)(3) and is not seeking an exemption
to these certification requirements.

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