Fed conducting survey

WASHINGTON – Alan Greenspan is asking 10,000 American households to take part in this year’s Federal Reserve survey of consumer finance, which aims to provide a snapshot of what people own, how much they borrow and how they use their banks.

Issued every three years, the survey is being conducted for the Fed by NORC, a social science research organization at the University of Chicago, the Fed announced Tuesday. The 2004 survey will be published in 2006.

Fed Chairman Greenspan, in a letter mailed to 10,000 randomly selected households, urged families to participate and assured them their privacy would be protected.

“Although good overall information on the state of the major sectors of the economy is available regularly, our knowledge about the financial circumstances faced by different types of households is much more limited,” the Fed chief explained. “Our survey fills a key part of this gap.