CFPB Announces Major Update to Consumer Complaint Database

Credit Cards CFPB Student Lending

On March 28, the CFPB released tens of thousands of consumer complaints related to mortgages, student loans, bank accounts and services, other consumer loans, and credit cards. Credit reporting complaints, will be released in the near future. The expanded database is a live database that is updated daily. It includes one million data points, covering approximately 450 companies, and allows users to track, sort, search, and download information. The CFPB has made the data available in formats that allow developers to build applications, conduct analyses, and perform research, and the database includes functionality to let users build their own visualizations, charts and graphs, and embed the data on other websites or share it through social media. The CFPB is encouraging consumers, analysts, developers, data scientists, civic hackers, and companies that serve consumers, to analyze, augment, and build on the public database to develop ways for consumers to access the complaint data or “mash it up” with other public data sets. The CFPB also released a fact sheet about the database, which provides some summary analysis of the data, as well as a “snapshot” report that provides information about the CFPB’s complaint handling process and additional summary presentation of the data. The CFPB also held a field hearing to review the complaint database and solicit public feedback. Consumer groups participating in the event repeatedly stressed the need for more specific data, including the full narrative description of complaints submitted by consumers, while industry representatives continued to caution the regulator about risks associated with unverified data.