Justification Memo - Screener for Focus Groups to inform 2019 Household Survey 3-5-18

Legal Division

550 17th Street NW, Washington, D.C. 20429-9990

Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation

March 5, 2018

 

Memorandum to:        Shagufta Ahmed

Policy Analyst              

                                    Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs

                                    Office of Management and Budget

 

From:                Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation

RE: Screener to Recruit Participants for Focus Groups on Attitudes and Perceptions of Banks and Financial Services to Revise the 2019 Survey of Unbanked and Underbanked Households

Under our “fast-track” generic clearance entitled, “Information Collection for Qualitative Research” (Control number: 3064-0198), the FDIC hereby submits for OMB approval the enclosed survey which seeks to recruit consumers to participate in focus groups on consumers’ attitudes and perceptions of banks and financial institutions. These focus groups are part of FDIC’s efforts to inform the revisions to the 2019 FDIC Survey of Unbanked and Underbanked Households (Household survey) (Control number 3064-0167). Recruiting of these focus groups participants will begin in March 2018 in preparation for focus groups that will take place on April 2018. We anticipate submitting the discussion guide and relevant focus group materials shortly in a separate request.

Purpose of survey. The purpose of this data collection is to recruit a mix of potential focus group participants that can discuss their use of financial services, and their perception and attitudes towards financial service providers. The FDIC plans to contact approximately 700 adult participants in order to identify a mix of consumers with different banking status, income levels, gender, and ethnic background. Participants will include consumers who use mainstream banking exclusively (fully banked), consumers with bank accounts that also utilize alternative financial services, such as payday advance loans (underbanked), and consumers with no checking or savings account (unbanked). Therefore, the Recruitment Screener asks questions about socioeconomic and demographic characteristics, such as age, gender, income, and occupation, as well as questions about financial behaviors, including whether they have a checking or savings account and whether they have used any alternative financial services.

Methodology. Respondents will be recruited using a mix of strategies, including posting ads in local venues, use of consumer databases, and recruiting in-person at local businesses or organizations that are frequented by unbanked and underbanked consumers, like VITA sites, check-cashing businesses, payday loan institutions, rent-to-own stores, pawn shops, and grocery and convenience stores. Respondents will also be recruited using online advertisements placed on Craigslist. Respondents who complete the screener might be asked to provide contact information for one other person who may be interested or available to complete the study. Using this Respondent Driven Sampling approach will allow efficient recruitment of this hard-to-reach population.

Burden Estimate. The anticipated burden for respondents is shown below. We anticipate screening 700 respondents in order to complete 12 focus groups each up to 10 respondents (120 total). The screening process will take 5 minutes. Therefore, this effort will require 58.3 burden hours (5*700) /60 = 58.3 hours). No compensation will be provided in this recruiting phase.

Estimated Number of Annual Respondents: 700

Frequency of Response: 1

Estimated Time per Response: 5 minutes

Total Estimated Annual Burden: 58.3 hours