You misrepresented what I wrote in my original research note, as well as Matt Phillip’s use of it in the piece he posted on Quartz. I never said that 22% of households have transaction accounts, but cited Fed data showing that interest-bearing assets accounted for 22% of households’ financial assets: “The surveys show that the share of financial assets comprised of interest-bearing assets, including transaction accounts, CDs and bonds, declined from 39.1% to 20.5% in 1998. Since 1998, the interest-bearing share of assets has averaged 20.8%; in 2010, that share was 21.9%.”

As you correctly noted in your post, 92% of households held transaction accounts in 2010.

Nancy Vanden Houten
Stone & McCarthy Research Associates

You misunderstood what Quartz wrote regarding Stone & McCarthy’s research. In my comment from 9/18, I wrote: “The surveys show that the share of financial assets comprised of interest-bearing assets, including transaction accounts, CDs and bonds, declined from 39.1% to 20.5% in 1998. Since 1998, the interest-bearing share of assets has averaged 20.8%; in 2010, that share was 21.9%.” I think my point was made clear by Matt Phillips at Quartz. Nowhere did I — or Quartz– say that the share of households with transaction accounts was 22%. As you correctly noted, that share was 92% in 2010.

Nancy Vanden Houten
Stone & McCarthy Research Associates