Consumer Finance
Our Consumer Finance Institute researches how people earn, spend, save, and invest, as well as how credit markets and payment systems affect the economy. Our goal is to foster a healthy consumer sector, a stable financial system, and a resilient regional and national economy.
Working Paper
Precision Without Labels: Detecting Cross-Applicants in Mortgage Data Using Unsupervised Learning
WP 25-25 – We develop an algorithm to detect loan applicants who submit multiple applications in a loan-level dataset without personal identifiers. Our method detects applicants that submit multiple mortgage applications with 92.3 percent precision.
Report
LIFE Survey Report – July 2025
This report is part of a quarterly series on key observations from the Labor, Income, Finances, and Expectations (LIFE) Survey. Data from the survey provide insight into consumers’ recent financial lives and their future expectations.
Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) Lender File
31 Jul ’25
The HMDA Lender File includes characteristics of firms receiving mortgage applications and originating loans. The data set enables users to connect HMDA filers to their parent organizations and compare a filer’s lending over time.
Working Paper
Consumer Wealth and Price Expectations
WP 25-23 – Prices have reached record-high levels, and inflation is one of the primary concerns for consumers worldwide. Interestingly, changes in prices are in part a self-fulfilling prophecy: if consumers expect prices to rise, prices will rise.
Working Paper
Recurring-Payment Sensitivity in Household Borrowing
WP 25-22 – This paper provides evidence of payment sensitivity in household borrowing decisions: Mortgage borrowers respond to the size of the recurring payment as opposed to discounted total loan costs when choosing between loan options.
Event
Nov
6-7
2025
New Perspectives on Consumer Behavior in Credit and Payments Markets Conference – 2025
Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia
Working Paper
Interchange Fees in Payment Networks: Implications for Prices, Profits, and Welfare
WP 25-18 – This paper examines the level of a wholesale price — the interchange fee — typically set by a payment card network that influences the distribution of acceptance costs and benefits incurred or received by merchants and consumers.