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About Us
The Consumer Payments Research Center (CPRC) is a
team of economists and payments experts who research
consumer payment behavior. The CPRC is involved in two
main areas of work:
(1) Development of the annual Survey of Consumer Payment
Choice (SCPC) and other consumer payments data in order
to conduct research and help formulate public policy
for the U.S. payment system.
(2) Filling a knowledge gap by becoming a leader in
research and policy analysis on the demand-side of money
and payments, by focusing on consumer payment behavior
that includes the behavior of individuals, households,
firms and government.
What's New
Welcome new staff members
Mariclare Cheney,
Kevin Foster, Jini Rao, Heather Roberts,
and Oz Shy. Please see our Staff page for more details.
Person-to-Person Electronic Funds Transfer: Recent Developments and Policy Issues
by Oz Shy
The paper investigates the reasons why person-to-person electronic funds transfers are still not very common in the United States compared with practices in many other countries. The paper also describes recent enhancements to online and mobile banking that provide account holders with low-cost interfaces to manage person-to-person electronic funds transfers via automated clearing house (ACH). On the theoretical side, the paper characterizes the critical mass levels needed for payment instruments to become widely adopted. Given the Fed's long-term heavy involvement in check clearing, the paper concludes with policy discussions of whether intervention is needed. Public Policy Discussion Paper No. 10-1.
The Mobile Payments Landscape 
Presentation by Marianne Crowe, Vice President, Consumer Payments Research Center, at Emerging Risk Forum, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, Washington, DC, February 23, 2010.
Consumer Payment Choice: A Central Bank Perspective 
Presentation by Scott Schuh, Director and Economist, Consumer Payments Research Center, at PULSE Financial Institutions Oversight Committee, Phoenix, AZ, January 21, 2010.
The 2008 Survey of Consumer Payment Choice
by Kevin Foster, Erik Meijer, Scott Schuh and Michael A. Zabek
This paper presents the 2008 version of the Survey of Consumer Payment Choice (SCPC), a nationally representative survey developed by the Consumer Payments Research Center of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston and implemented by the RAND Corporation with its American Life Panel. The survey fills a gap in knowledge about the role of consumers in the transformation of payments from paper to electronic by providing a broad-based assessment of U.S. consumers’ adoption and use of nine payment instruments, including cash. Public Policy Discussion Paper No. 09-10.
Frontier Policy Issues in Consumer Payment Behavior
By Scott Schuh and Joanna Stavins
Since the mid-1990s, the US payment system has been
undergoing a transformation, featuring a significant
decline in the use of paper payment methods —
cheques and cash — and increasing popularity of
cards and electronic payments. As a consequence of this
transformation, new and largely unexplored policy issues
have surfaced with implications for consumer welfare.
Who adopts new technology and why? Do consumers manage
their finances in an optimal way, given their increased
reliance on credit? And for consumers who continue to
rely on the traditional financial instruments, what
options do they have when their bank accounts are closed
involuntarily? This paper reviews some of the most important
current policy issues in consumer payments, focusing
on banking and payment cards. Published in Journal of
Payments Strategies and Systems, Volume 3 Number 4 (November 2009).
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