Updates focus on improved context to published data and resources to answer consumers questions before they file a complaint through the database.
9/18/2019 14:00
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has released long-awaited updates to its Consumer Complaint Database.
CFPB Director Kathy Kraninger announced the updates following a comment period to collect feedback from industry stakeholders, including ACA International.
“Since its inception, the Consumer Complaint Database has not been without controversy. When the bureau asked for feedback in 2018, we received nearly 26,000 comments from a wide array of stakeholders including government officials, consumer groups, companies, academics, and individual consumers,” Kraninger said in a CFPB news release. “After carefully examining and considering all stakeholder and public input, we are announcing the continued publication of complaints with enhanced data and context that will benefit consumers and users of the database while addressing many of the concerns raised. The continued publication of the database, along with the enhancements, empowers consumers and informs the public.”
In particular, the updates address responding to consumers inquiries through educational materials available on the database rather than encouraging questions to be submitted as complaints.
“The enhancements include modified disclaimers to provide better context to the published data; integrating financial information and resources into the complaint process to help address questions and better inform consumers before they submit a complaint; and information to assist consumers who wish to contact the financial company to get answers to their specific questions,” according to the news release from the CFPB. “Additionally, the bureau will work to provide enhanced features for the database that include dynamic visualization tools on recent complaint data.”
In response ACA CEO Mark Neeb said: “The CFPB’s thoughtful attention to improving the complaint process will help consumers be more informed about their options, and how to take appropriate steps for resolving inquiries, as opposed to meritless complaints. ACA has long maintained the complaint data is flawed and a more accurate reporting of complaints would better serve both consumers and the industry. The CFPB’s actions today are step in the right direction to provide more transparency and accuracy to the process, and we urge it to move forward with putting complaint data in context of other data, such as by incorporating product or service market share and company size.”
The bureau is making changes to its website to provide disclosures on the nature of complaints as well as resources to consumers, including:
- More prominently display disclosures making it clear that the Consumer Complaint Database is not a statistical sample of consumers’ experiences in the marketplace;
- Highlighting the availability of answers to common financial questions for consumers to help inform them before they submit a complaint; and
- Highlighting consumers ability to contact the financial company directly to get answers to their specific questions.
ACA has long advocated for changes to the flawed complaint collection process. In 2018, ACA submitted comments to the CFPB outlining members’ views on Public Reporting Practices of Consumer Complaint Information, in particular the accuracy of complaints, verification processes and public availability of the bureau’s consumer complaint database.
Overall, ACA is encouraged by the changes and will continue to work with the CFPB as it updates the Consumer Complaint Database.
The CFPB said it will explore expansion of a company’s ability to respond publicly to individual complaints in the database, among other enhancements, in the coming months.