ACA International continues to advocate for better contextualization of complaints as the CFPB updates the database. Editor’s Note: This article from the MAP Committee is available for members only.
4/3/2020 9:00
By Shaun Ertischek, Esq., IFCCE
ACA International MAP Committee Chair
On Feb. 6, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s Office of Consumer Response held an exclusive webinar for ACA International to preview anticipated enhancements to the Consumer Complaint Database that will be implemented over the coming year.
Last September, the CFPB initially announced in a news release that "it will continue the publication of consumer complaints, data fields and narrative descriptions through the Bureau’s Consumer Complaint Database while making several enhancements to the information available to users of the database."
Since that time, the CFPB made enhancements including:
- Modified disclaimers to provide better context to the published data (including that it is not a statistical sample of consumers’ experiences in the marketplace);
- Integrated financial information and resources into the complaint process to help address questions and better inform consumers before they submit a complaint; and
- The provision of information to assist consumers who wish to contact the financial company to get answers to their specific questions.
The CFPB now plans to provide enhanced features for the database that include dynamic visualization tools on recent complaint data. These tools include a map or geospatial view in phase one, which is anticipated to be completed in April.
It will display a default view of the most recent three years of complaint data by state but permit customizable views that allow for filtering and adjusted date ranges. This map view emphasizes the neutral presentation of aggregate data while retaining individual search capabilities.
A trend view will be adopted in phase two, which is expected to be completed in July. This view will show a graphical representation over time. Features of this view include a default view that displays trend visualization based on the most recent three years of complaint data with the same customizable filters and date range. This will allow for dynamic visualizations based on the criteria selected by the user.
The CFPB’s goal is to emphasize features for aggregation and analysis of the underlying complaint data. The CFPB started taking complaints in July 2011 and maintains ongoing efforts to modify the utility of the database.
The CFPB continues to explore the expansion of a company’s ability to respond publicly to complaints. There are currently nine structured categories available should a company choose to make a public response. Fifty percent of complaints have a public response provided, while 85% of those only state that a response was provided (without further explanation). If there is enough interest, the CFPB may decide to add customized complaint options for companies to set their own public response rather than select one of the pre-populated responses.
The CFPB’s expanded preview of the proposed enhancements, and other webinars it is conducting, provide an opportunity for interested stakeholders to provide feedback prior to implementation.
ACA International has continued to advocate for better contextualization of the number of complaints compared to the number of contacts—as debt collection complaints account for only 0.005% of all consumer contacts made in a given year by debt collectors—and for the CFPB to do more work to distinguish mere inquiries from actual complaints or violations of law. ACA would prefer the CFPB focus its resources on actual consumer harm rather than raw numbers of complaints provided without appropriate context. Those efforts would help present a more accurate picture of the debt collection industry for consumers.
This article was contributed by a member of ACA International’s Member Attorney Program (MAP) committee. ACA Daily will publish future legal analyses and thought pieces written by members of this important committee.