Published: August 2020

Advocates call foul as CFPB hides consumer complaint narratives from public view

Consumer Action joined nearly three dozen consumer, civil rights, community, housing, and privacy groups in urging the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) to reconsider its decision to bury the narratives of consumer complaints, making it much harder for non-experts to find this essential material in its consumer complaint database. Access to the complaint narratives helps to educate and empower consumers to make wise financial decisions and meets the Bureau’s mandate to inform and protect consumers. Public access to this critical information also helps to hold companies accountable for their behavior in the financial marketplace.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) was created to be an effective advocate and ally for hardworking Americans when they are dealing with or are victims of extremely powerful financial firms. Unfortunately, the Trump administration has turned the CFPB into a predator protection bureau, leaving Main Street financial consumers to fend for themselves. Its latest move: quietly bury consumer complaint details, also known as narratives, by removing information and links to the consumer complaints database from its homepage. This is a gross disservice to consumers, especially those who are infrequent or first-time users of the database, who will find it difficult to track complaints about consumer financial products and services or learn about ongoing disputes with financial firms.

Lead Organization

Consumer Action

Other Organizations

Advocacy for Principled Action in Government | Alaska PIRG | American Federation of Teachers | Americans for Financial Reform Education Fund | Better Markets | California Reinvestment Coalition | Center for Digital Democracy | Center for Economic Integrity | Constitutional Alliance | Consumer Action | Consumer Federation of America | Electronic Information Privacy Center | Empire Justice Center | Montana Organizing Project | Mountain State Justice | NAACP | National Association of Consumer Advocates | National Association of Consumer Bankruptcy Attorneys | National Community Reinvestment Coalition | National Consumer Law Center (on behalf of its low income clients) | National Fair Housing Alliance | National Housing Law Project | National Housing Resource Center | National Urban League | National Workrights Institute | Northwest Side Housing Center | Privacy Rights Clearinghouse | Public Citizen | SC Appleseed Legal Justice Center | Student Borrower Protection Center | Student Debt Crisis | The Institute for College Access and Success (TICAS) | U.S.PIRG Virginia Organizing Woodstock Institute

More Information

For more information, please visit Consumer Action.

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Advocates call foul as CFPB hides consumer complaint narratives from public view   (Complaint_DB_Hidden_Narratives-Advocates_Lttr_-8-11-20.pdf)