Evidence Center

Research, Sources & Evidence

A structured evidence layer for understanding digital lending—not a list of citations. Each summary explains what a source found, how strong the evidence is, what it does not prove, and where it fits in the AppLoans knowledge graph.

How this library is different: AppLoans prioritizes primary government, regulator and national-survey sources. We separate evidence from interpretation, preserve limitations, link to original publications and avoid treating complaint counts, guidance pages or old surveys as prevalence estimates.
Strong evidence

U.S. Financial Resilience & Emergency Expenses

Federal Reserve SHED evidence on financial well-being, emergency expenses, savings and credit access.

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Strong evidence

U.S. Unbanked & Underbanked Households

FDIC national survey evidence on banking status and use of nonbank financial services.

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Strong evidence

Paycheck Advance / Earned Wage Access Market

CFPB market data on employer-sponsored paycheck advance use, fees and growth.

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Moderate evidence

Payday Loan Use & Persistence

CFPB research on repeated payday, title and pawn borrowing and financial shocks.

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Moderate evidence

Online Payday Loan Complaint Patterns

CFPB complaint data showing how consumers describe problems with online and storefront payday loans.

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Strong evidence

Canada Payday Loan Evidence

FCAC research on payday-loan use, consumer perspectives, costs and regulatory context.

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Strong evidence

Canadian Financial Well-Being & Borrowing

FCAC evidence on saving, daily-expense borrowing and financial well-being.

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Contextual evidence

Advance-Fee Loan Fraud Evidence

FTC guidance and alerts on fake loan offers, upfront-payment demands and sensitive-data requests.

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Strong evidence

Borrowing Decisions & Financial Fragility

Cross-source evidence on emergency expenses, borrowing for daily needs and financial resilience.

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Strong evidence

Buy Now, Pay Later Market Evidence

CFPB market data on BNPL usage, volume, late fees and charge-offs.

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Evidence methodology

See how sources are selected, dated, classified and graded for usefulness. The framework distinguishes nationally representative surveys and regulator datasets from administrative complaints, guidance and enforcement alerts.

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Source index

Browse the primary sources used across the Evidence Center by institution, topic, jurisdiction, evidence type and publication date.

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