3170-0052_CC_Ageements_Supporting Statment A-final

30-day Federal Register and OMB Review Version

BUREAU OF CONSUMER FINANCIAL PRTOECTION
PAPERWORK REDUCTION ACT SUBMISSION
INFORMATION COLLECTIONS REQUEST
SUPPORTING STATEMENT PART A
CONSUMER AND COLLEGE CREDIT CARD AGREEMENTS
(OMB CONTROL NUMBER: 3170-0052)

OMB TERMS OF CLEARANCE: The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) provided
no Terms of Clearance when it last reviewed this collection of information in March 2015.
ABSTRACT:
Sections 204 and 305 of the Credit Card Accountability Responsibility and Disclosure Act of 2009
(CARD Act) and 12 CFR §§ 226.57(d) and 226.58 require card issuers to submit to the Bureau of
Consumer Financial Protection (Bureau):
• 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 Bureau to provide consumers with a centralized depository for consumer
and college credit card agreements and information regarding the arrangements between financial
institutions and institutions of higher education.

JUSTIFICATION
1. Circumstances Necessitating the Data Collection
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 responsibility for this review
will be transferred to the Bureau, 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; and
• 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 Bureau assumed responsibility under the CARD Act for quarterly collecting credit
card agreements in a publicly available database. Pursuant to 12 CFR § 1026.58 and 15 U.S.C.
§ 1632(d)(2)–(3), collection is mandated for all issuers (subject to de minimis exceptions), and the scope
of the mandate may require submission of multiple different agreements for each issuer. See 15 U.S.C.
§ 1632(d)(2) (“Each creditor shall provide to the Bureau, in electronic format, the consumer credit card
agreements that it publishes . . . .”) (emphasis added); id. § 1632(d)(3) (“The Bureau shall establish and
maintain on its publicly available Internet site a central repository of the consumer credit card agreements
received from creditors pursuant to this subsection, and such agreements shall be easily accessible and
retrievable by the public.”) (emphasis added).
College Credit Card Agreement Annual Submission
This collection is made pursuant to the CARD Act requirement, codified at 12 CFR § 1026.57(d); 15
U.S.C. § 1637(r); and 76 FR 79768 (Dec. 22, 2011).
Every year, the CARD Act requires the Bureau 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. See 15 U.S.C. § 1637(r)(2)(A) (“Each creditor shall submit an annual
report to the Bureau containing the terms and conditions of all business, marketing, and promotional
agreements and college affinity card agreements with an institution of higher education, or an alumni
organization or foundation affiliated with or related to such institution, with respect to any college student
credit card issued to a college student at such institution.”) (emphasis added).
The CARD Act requires the Bureau 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. See id. § 1637(r)(3) (“The Bureau
shall submit to the Congress, and make available to the public, an annual report . . . .”). Affiliated
organizations include fraternities, sororities, alumni associations, or foundations affiliated with or related
to an institution of higher education. The Bureau 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 Bureau to collect and post to the Bureau’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 CFR § 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
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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 Bureau is required by law to make all such agreements “easily accessible and retrievable.” They are
posted on the Bureau’s site: http://www.consumerfinance.gov/credit-cards/agreements/. The agreements
can 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 Bureau 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 CFR § 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 Bureau 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 Bureau 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 CFR § 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.

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The college credit card data is posted at https://data.consumerfinance.gov/Government/College-CreditCard-Agreements/r963-hvsf.

3. Use of Information Technology
The Bureau changed the submission method from faxing PDF/handwritten forms to emailing Excel forms
electronically in July 2012. This change was non-material and has made the form submission efficient and
timely and reduced logistical burden.

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 Bureau is required to collect these data quarterly and annually and
make the information available to the Congress and the general public. Without the Bureau’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 the Bureau 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. One responsive comment was received
urging the Bureau to consider whether the collection of these agreements has utility. The Bureau notes
that these collections are not discretionary and are statutorily required by the CARD ACT. Further and
in accordance with 5 CFR 1320.5(a)(1)(iv). the Bureau will publish a notice in the Federal Register
allowing the public 30 days to comment on the submission of this information collection request to OMB.
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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
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

Number of
Annual
Responses

400

4

1,600

Average
Response
Time
(hours)
.25

Annual Burden
Hours

30

1

30

1

30

430

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

1,630

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

430

400

The proposed annual burden for the quarterly credit card agreement submission would be 400 hours. The
Bureau 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 $23,730 based on the
following formula: percentage of staff time, multiplied by annual burden hours, multiplied by hourly rate
(30% Administrative Services Manager @ $47, 70% Operations Manager @ $58.70,). Hourly rate
estimates for each occupational group are averages using data from the Bureau of Labor and Statistics
(BLS), Occupational Employment and Wages, May 2016, 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.
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Annual Credit Card Agreement submission
We estimate the labor costs to submit the annual college credit card agreement to be $1,707 based on the
following formula: percentage of staff time, multiplied by annual burden hours, multiplied by hourly rate
(30% Administrative Services Manager @ $47, 50% Operations Manager @ $58.70, and 20% Legal
Counsel @ $67.25). Hourly rate estimates for each occupational group are averages using data from the
Bureau of Labor and Statistics (BLS), Occupational Employment and Wages, May 2016,
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
this form imposes no significant additional costs on them.

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

15. Program Changes or Adjustments
There are no changes to this program, or its burdens since the last renewal of this collection. The
on-line portal that was launched in 2016 has not been used; therefore, the Bureau is adjusting the
hours back to what was originally projected for respondents to email the report to the Bureau.
16. Plans for Tabulation, Statistical Analysis, and Publication
Individual respondent data are collected and then published on the Bureau’s public web site. There are 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
The Bureau displays the expiration date for OMB approval of the information collection on all
instruments. The OMB number and expiration are also displayed on OMB’s public-facing 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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