Federal Register / Vol. 88, No. 211 / Thursday, November 2, 2023 / Notices 75277 

come, first served basis. There may be 

continuing opportunity to participate 

even after initial activity commences for 

participants who were not selected 

initially or have submitted the letter of 

interest after the selection process. 

Selected participants will be required to 

enter into a consortium CRADA with 

NIST. At NIST’s discretion, entities 

which are not permitted to enter into 

CRADAs pursuant to law may be 

allowed to participate in the Consortium 

pursuant to separate non-CRADA 

agreement. 

Project Objective: Artificial 

Intelligence (AI) tools and applications 

are growing at an unprecedented pace, 

changing our way of life, and having 

significant impacts on society and all 

sectors of the economy. Yet, the 

potential technical and societal benefits 

and risks of AI require much closer 

examination and a more complete 

understanding. Aligning AI with our 

societal norms and values and keeping 

the public safe requires a broad humancentered focus, specific policies, 

processes, and guardrails informed by 

community stakeholders across various 

levels of our society, and bold 

commitment from the public sector. 

To manage the broad risks of AI 

technologies, help to protect the public 

and our planet, reduce market 

uncertainties, and encourage even more 

extraordinary AI technological 

innovations, the National Institute of 

Standards and Technology (NIST) is 

expanding its AI measurement efforts by 

harnessing the broader community’s 

interests and capabilities. NIST aims to 

help enable the identification of proven, 

scalable, and interoperable 

measurements and methodologies to 

promote development of trustworthy AI 

and its responsible use. This is a critical 

challenge at a pivotal time—not only for 

AI technologists but for society. 

Building upon its long track record of 

working with the private and public 

sectors and its history of reliable and 

practical measurement and standardsoriented solutions, NIST seeks research 

collaborators who can support this vital 

undertaking. Specifically, NIST looks to 

• Create a convening space for 

collaborators to have an informed 

dialogue and enable sharing of 

information and knowledge 

• Engage in collaborative research 

and development through shared 

projects 

• Enable assessment and evaluation 

of test systems and prototypes to inform 

future AI measurement efforts 

To create a lasting approach for 

continued joint research and 

development, NIST will engage 

stakeholders via this consortium. The 

work of the consortium will be open 

and transparent and provide a hub for 

interested parties to work together in 

building and maturing a measurement 

science for Trustworthy and 

Responsible AI. Consortium members 

will be expected to contribute: 

• Technical expertise in one or more 

of the following areas 

• Data and data documentation 

• AI Metrology 

• AI Governance 

• AI Safety 

• Trustworthy AI 

• Responsible AI 

• AI system design and development 

• AI system deployment 

• AI Red Teaming 

• Human-AI Teaming and Interaction 

• Test, Evaluation, Validation and 

Verification methodologies 

• Socio-technical methodologies 

• AI Fairness 

• AI Explainability and Interpretability 

• Workforce skills 

• Psychometrics 

• Economic analysis 

• Models, data and/or products to 

support and demonstrate pathways to 

enable safe and trustworthy artificial 

intelligence (AI) systems through the 

AI risk management framework 

• Infrastructure support for consortium 

projects 

• Facility space and handling of hosting 

consortium researchers, workshops 

and conferences 

This project is in service of the 

priorities and taskings defined in The 

Safe, Secure, and Trustworthy 

Development and Use of Artificial 

Intelligence Executive Order. 

Additionally, some of the outcomes of 

this project will be in support of 

research and development to advance 

the AI RMF roadmap (https://

www.nist.gov/itl/ai-risk-managementframework/roadmap-nist-artificialintelligence-risk-managementframework-ai). The consortium will be 

responsible for an array of efforts related 

to safe and trustworthy AI, including to: 

1. Develop new guidelines, tools, 

methods, protocols and best practices to 

facilitate the evolution of industry 

standards for developing or deploying 

AI in safe, secure, and trustworthy ways 

2. Develop guidance and benchmarks 

for identifying and evaluating AI 

capabilities, with a focus on capabilities 

that could potentially cause harm 

3. Develop approaches to incorporate 

secure-development practices for 

generative AI, including special 

considerations for dual-use foundation 

models, including 

a. guidance related to assessing and 

managing the safety, security, and 

trustworthiness of models and related to 

privacy-preserving machine learning; 

b. guidance to ensure the availability 

of testing environments 

4. Develop and ensure the availability 

of testing environments 

5. Develop guidance, methods, skills 

and practices for successful red-teaming 

and privacy-preserving machine 

learning 

6. Develop guidance and tools for 

authenticating digital content 

7. Develop guidance and criteria for 

AI workforce skills, including risk 

identification and management, test, 

evaluation, validation, and verification 

(TEVV), and domain-specific expertise 

8. Explore the complexities at the 

intersection of society and technology, 

including the science of how humans 

make sense of and engage with AI in 

different contexts 

9. Develop guidance for 

understanding and managing the 

interdependencies between and among 

AI actors along the lifecycle 

Requirements for Letters of Interest: 

Each responding organization’s letter 

of interest should include the address, 

point of contact, and following 

information: 

1. The role(s) the organization will 

play in the consortium efforts. 

2. The specific expertise will they 

intend to bring to the consortium. 

3. The products, services, data, or 

other technical capabilities will they use 

in consortium activities. 

Letters of interest should not include 

proprietary information. NIST will not 

treat any information provided in 

response to this notice as proprietary 

information. 

NIST cannot guarantee that all 

submissions will be utilized, or the 

products proposed by respondents will 

be used in consortium activities. Each 

prospective participant will be expected 

to work collaboratively with NIST staff 

and other project participants under the 

terms of the consortium CRADA. 

(Authority: 15 U.S.C. 3710a, 15 U.S.C. 278h– 

1, and 15 U.S.C. 272b and 272c) 

Alicia Chambers, 

NIST Executive Secretariat. 

[FR Doc. 2023–24216 Filed 11–1–23; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 3510–13–P 

CONSUMER FINANCIAL PROTECTION 

BUREAU 

Consumer Credit Card Market Report, 

2023 

AGENCY: Consumer Financial Protection 

Bureau. 


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75278 Federal Register / Vol. 88, No. 211 / Thursday, November 2, 2023 / Notices 

1The Act superseded a number of earlier 

regulations that had been finalized, but had not yet 

become effective, by the Office of Thrift 

Supervision (OTS), the National Credit Union 

Administration (NCUA), and the Board of 

Governors of the Federal Reserve System (Board). 

Those earlier rules were announced in December of 

2008 and published in the Federal Register the 

following month. See 74 FR 5244 (Jan. 29, 2009); 

74 FR 5498 (Jan. 29, 2009). The rules were 

withdrawn in light of the CARD Act. See 75 FR 

7657, 75 FR 7925 (Feb. 22, 2010). 

2See CFPB, Card Act Report (Oct. 1, 2013) (2013 

Report), http://files.consumerfinance.gov/f/201309_

cfpb_card-act-report.pdf; CFPB, The Consumer 

Credit Card Market (Dec. 2015) (2015 Report), 

https://files.consumerfinance.gov/f/201512_cfpb_

report-the-consumer-credit-card-market.pdf; CFPB, 

The Consumer Credit Card Market (Dec. 2017) 

(2017 Report), https://files.consumerfinance.gov/f/ 

documents/cfpb_consumer-credit-card-marketreport_2017.pdf; CFPB, The Consumer Credit Card 

Market (Aug. 2019) (2019 Report), https://

files.consumerfinance.gov/f/documents/cfpb_

consumer-credit-card-market-report_2019.pdf; 

CFPB, The Consumer Credit Card Market (Sept. 

2021) (2021 Report), https://files.consumer

finance.gov/f/documents/cfpb_consumer-creditcard-market-report_2021.pdf. The Bureau also held 

a conference in 2011 in which numerous market 

stakeholders contributed information and 

perspective on developments in the credit card 

market. See Press Release, Bureau of Consumer Fin. 

Prot., CFPB Launches Public Inquiry on the Impact 

of the Card Act (Dec. 19, 2012), https://

www.consumerfinance.gov/about-us/newsroom/ 

consumer-financial-protection-bureau-launchespublic-inquiry-on-the-impact-of-the-card-act. 

3 15 U.S.C. 1616(b) (2012). 

4RFI Regarding Consumer Credit Card Market, 88 

FR 5313 (Jan. 27, 2022). 

ACTION: Consumer credit card market 

report. 

SUMMARY: The Consumer Financial 

Protection Bureau (CFPB or Bureau) is 

issuing its sixth biennial Consumer 

Credit Card Market Report to Congress. 

The report reviews developments in this 

consumer market since the CFPB’s most 

recent biennial report on the same 

subject in 2021. 

DATES: The CFPB released the 2023 

Consumer Credit Card Market Report on 

its website on October 25, 2023. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Wei 

Zhang, Deputy Assistant Director, 

Consumer Credit, Payments, and 

Deposits Markets, Division of Research, 

Monitoring, and Regulations at ((202) 

435–7700 or wei.zhang@cfpb.gov), or 

Margaret Seikel, Financial Analyst, 

Division of Research, Monitoring, and 

Regulations (margaret.seikel@cfpb.gov). 

If you require this document in an 

alternative electronic format, please 

contact CFPB_Accessibility@cfpb.gov. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

1.1 Background 

In 2009, Congress passed the Credit 

Card Accountability Responsibility and 

Disclosure Act of 2009 (CARD Act or 

Act).1 The Act made substantial changes 

to the credit card market. The CARD Act 

mandated new disclosures and 

underwriting standards, curbed certain 

fees, and restricted interest rate 

increases on existing balances. Among 

the CARD Act’s many provisions was a 

requirement that the Board of Governors 

of the Federal Reserve System (Board) 

report every two years on the state of the 

consumer credit card market. With the 

passage of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street 

Reform and Consumer Protection Act 

(Dodd-Frank Act) in 2010, that 

requirement transferred to the CFPB 

alongside broader responsibility for 

administering most of the CARD Act’s 

provisions. This is the sixth report 

published pursuant to that obligation, 

building on prior reports published by 

the CFPB in 2013, 2015, 2017, 2019, and 

2021.2

1.2 Publication 

In addition to being delivered to 

Congress, the full report is available to 

the public on the CFPB’s website at 

https://files.consumerfinance.gov/f/ 

documents/cfpb_consumer-credit-cardmarket-report_2023.pdf. 

1.3 Summary of Report 

The full 2023 report reviews the state 

of the consumer credit card market as of 

the end of 2022. In addition to 

mandating the CFPB’s biennial review 

and report on the market, the Act also 

requires the CFPB to ‘‘solicit comment 

from consumers, credit card issuers, and 

other interested parties’’ in connection 

with its review.3 As in past years, the 

CFPB has done so through a Request for 

Information (RFI) published in the 

Federal Register, and the CFPB 

discusses specific evidence or 

arguments provided by commenters 

throughout the report.4

This study represents the CFPB’s 

sixth biennial report on the state of the 

consumer credit card market and 

continues the approach of the CFPB’s 

previous reports. The CFPB revisits 

similar baseline indicators to track key 

market developments and consumer 

risks as well as the adequacy of 

consumer protections. Throughout this 

report, we continue to examine trends 

by card type and credit score tier, but 

further segment consumers with the 

highest scores into two new groups, 

prime plus (720 to 799) and superprime 

(800 and above). In a new section, this 

report examines the market dynamics, 

concentration, and profitability of the 

credit card industry in detail, 

complementing other regulators’ 

examination of the safety and soundness 

of card issuers. We explore new topics 

that have become more important as the 

market continues to evolve. For 

example, the current report explores the 

prevalence and cost of installment plan 

features and the dollar value of credit 

card rewards. Additionally, we discuss 

issuer practices related to dispute 

resolution, minimum payments, and 

servicemember rate reductions. 

Use of Credit 

• Use of credit: Credit card debt at the 

end of 2022 surpassed $1 trillion for the 

first time in our data, but total 

outstandings remain below prepandemic levels when adjusted for 

inflation. Spending grew to new highs 

of $846 billion in the fourth quarter of 

2022. At the same time, total payments 

rose, and cardholders paid significantly 

more of their monthly balances with a 

greater share of accounts entirely paid 

off each month. Delinquency and 

charge-off rates in 2022 were at lower 

levels than 2019 but increasing, 

presumably rising with the expiration of 

COVID–19 related financial relief. 

• Overall market size and structure: 

Nearly 4,000 issuers, together with 

dozens of co-brand merchant partners 

and four major networks, provide cards 

to over 190 million consumers. The top 

ten credit card issuers still represent 

over four-fifths of consumer credit card 

loans, but the next 20 biggest issuers’ 

market share has grown since 2016. 

• Competition and profitability: For 

companies involved in credit card 

issuance, servicing, and debt collection, 

the industry remains profitable. Issuers’ 

profitability fell in 2020 but spiked in 

2021 and remained at or above 2019- 

levels in 2022 with an average return on 

assets of six percent for general purpose 

cards and two percent on private label 

portfolios. Point-of-sale; Buy Now, Pay 

Later (BNPL); and fintech personal loans 

as well as ‘‘pay-by-bank’’ options 

increasingly compete with traditional 

credit cards for purchase volume and 

balances. 

• Cost of credit: By some measures, 

credit cards have never been this 

expensive, as issuers charged more than 

$130 billion in interest and fees in 2022 

alone. By the end of 2022, interest and 

fees as an annualized percentage of 

balances, or the total cost of credit, was 

almost 18 percent on general purpose 

cards and over 21 percent on private 

label accounts. Many cardholders with 

subprime scores are now paying 30 to 

40 cents in interest and fees per dollar 

borrowed each year. Federal Reserve 

rate increases triggered upward 

repricing on most general purpose 

cards, and issuers continue to price well 

above the prime rate, with an average 

annual percentage rate (APR) margin of 

15.4 percentage points. Fee volume now 

exceeds pre-pandemic levels. Annual 


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fees grew in 2021 and 2022, while late 

fees returned to 2019 levels at $14.5 

billion as did the cardholder cost of 

balance transfers and cash advances. 

• Rewards: The dollar value of 

rewards earned by general purpose 

cardholders exceeded $40 billion for 

mass market issuers in 2022. 

Transacting accounts, or those where 

the cardholder pays the full statement 

balance each month, are increasingly 

benefitting from credit card use. But, 

when a consumer revolves a balance on 

their credit card, the cost of interest and 

fees almost always exceeds the value of 

rewards the consumer may have earned. 

Cardholders’ rewards redemptions have 

increased, but consumers still forfeit 

hundreds of millions of dollars in 

rewards value each year. 

• New features and products: 

Installment plan features which permit 

cardholders to convert a credit card 

purchase to a lower-cost, fixed-rate loan 

comprise a small but growing segment 

of the market designed to compete with 

BNPL. These issuer plans often offer 

lower finance charges than on revolving 

debt, but consumers may struggle to 

make higher monthly payments. ‘‘Credit 

card-as-a-service’’ platforms from 

fintechs to traditional banks have 

streamlined co-brand partnerships to 

improve user experience and offer novel 

rewards with smaller retailers. Some 

issuers are now approving consumers 

with only soft inquires on consumers’ 

credit reports; others are underwriting 

consumers without credit scores using 

new datasets and modeling techniques 

outside the traditional credit reporting 

system. Issuers are providing 

cardholders with more flexible 

repayment terms and new payment 

options, including through a growing 

number of digital wallets. 

• Persistent debt: With the average 

minimum payment due increasing to 

over $100 on revolving general purpose 

accounts in 2022, more users are 

incurring late fees and facing higher 

costs on growing debt. We find one in 

ten general purpose accounts are 

charged more in interest and fees than 

they pay toward the principal each year, 

indicating a pattern of persistent 

indebtedness that could become 

increasingly difficult for some 

consumers to escape. Public relief 

programs in 2020 and 2021 enabled 

some consumers to pay down credit 

card balances, but the number of 

cardholders facing persistent debt has 

begun to climb. 

• Availability of credit: Most 

measures of credit card availability grew 

in 2021 and 2022 after a sharp decrease 

in access during 2020. Application 

volume for general purpose credit cards 

reached a new peak in 2022, as issuers 

increased acquisition efforts and 

consumer demand grew. For retail 

cards, in contrast, application volume 

fell from 2020 to 2022. Approval rates 

more than rebounded for all card types. 

The recent upticks in marketing, 

applications, and approvals led to 

significant growth in credit card 

originations in 2021 with even more 

activity in 2022. Consumers with belowprime scores opened more than 80 

million new credit card accounts in 

2021 and 2022 combined compared to 

63 million over the two year period 

from 2019 through 2020. Total credit 

line across all consumer credit cards 

increased to over $5 trillion in 2022 but 

remained below 2017 levels in real 

terms. After declining in 2020, issuers 

initiated credit line increases more 

frequently in 2021 and 2022 than they 

did prior to the pandemic but decreased 

lines or closed accounts at rates similar 

to those seen over the past decade. 

• Disputes: Credit card disputes 

spiked with pandemic-related 

cancellations and supply chain issues in 

mid-2020, declined in 2021, but then 

rose in 2022 as spending grew. Disputed 

transaction volume for mass market 

issuers was up 50 percent from 2019 

levels to almost $10 billion in 2022, and 

chargebacks increased more than 80 

percent from $3.2 billion to $5.9 billion. 

• Account servicing: Cardholders 

increasingly use and service their cards 

through digital portals, including those 

accessed via mobile devices. Three in 

four general purpose accountholders are 

now enrolled in issuers’ mobile apps, 

and adoption is increasing, notably for 

those under 65. The use of automatic 

payments has likewise continued to 

climb. New artificial intelligence (AI)/ 

machine learning (ML) technologies are 

changing how providers service 

accounts, but concerns regarding the use 

and sharing of consumer data remain 

significant, particularly among older 

cardholders. 

• Debt collection: Compared to prior 

surveys, the use of email in collections 

continued to increase in 2022, with 

consumers opening about one-third of 

messages. Issuers seemed to leverage the 

text messaging (or SMS) channel 

significantly more in 2022 than in prior 

years with a relatively low opt-out rate 

at 1.3 percent. New enrollments in loss 

mitigation programs and total inventory 

in those programs declined. Post-chargeoff settlements fell significantly from 

their previous peaks during the 

pandemic. All issuers who sold debt 

reported deleting the charged-off 

tradelines from credit reports upon sale, 

potentially resulting in an incomplete 

view of consumers’ debt burden, 

likelihood of default, and history in the 

credit reporting system. 

Throughout this report, we highlight 

potential areas of concern in the 

consumer credit card market. Given 

rising balances and credit costs, more 

cardholders may struggle to pay their 

credit card bill on time, especially with 

amounts past-due, overlimit, or under 

an installment plan added to the 

minimum payment due. As such, the 

CFPB will continue to monitor 

assessments of late fees, reliance upon 

penalty repricing, and debt collection 

practices, alongside the disclosure of 

minimum payments in accordance with 

CARD Act requirements. Issuers’ 

margins are increasing as they price 

APRs further above the prime rate, 

potentially signaling a lack of price 

competition. Instead, companies offer 

more generous rewards and sign-up 

bonuses to win new accounts, largely 

benefitting those with higher scores who 

pay their balances in full each month. 

The CFPB will explore ways to promote 

comparison shopping on purchase 

APRs—a major cost of credit cards that 

is often unknown to consumers prior to 

card issuance. We will also monitor 

changes in rewards value if issuers look 

to cut costs in response to lower 

revenue. We encourage new entrants— 

both bank and non-bank—to work on 

providing consumers with more 

transparency, better experiences, and 

greater access to credit, so long as they 

comply with existing consumer finance 

laws. 

1.4 Current and Future CFPB Work in 

This Market 

Over the past two years, the CFPB has 

been actively engaged in the credit card 

market and has taken measures to 

address regulatory uncertainty, identify 

compliance deficiencies, and research 

new, emerging technologies and 

products to ensure the adequacy of 

consumer protection and a transparent 

and competitive marketplace for all 

consumers. The CFPB is continuing to 

study and consider actions to address 

the areas of concern noted in the full 

report. Aside from a current rulemaking 

related to credit card penalty fees, 

however, the CFPB is not currently 

proposing to add or revise regulations 

related to the topics covered in the 2023 

Consumer Credit Card Market Report. 

Rohit Chopra, 

Director, Consumer Financial Protection 

Bureau. 

[FR Doc. 2023–24132 Filed 11–1–23; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 4810–AM–P 


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