Banks Roused by the CFPB's Database of Complaints

When the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in January 2012 proposed creating a free, public database of consumer complaints against credit-card issuers, financial firms urged officials to reconsider. In letters to the agency, trade groups argued that doing so would expose trade secrets and breach customer privacy. Posting company names without verifying the accuracy of the complaints levied against them, wrote the Consumer Data Industry Association, would unfairly cast reputable businesses “in the shadow of possible guilt.”

Despite protests, the database went live in June. And, in a step that further irked the industry, the CFPB on March 28 expanded it to include customer gripes about mortgages, student loans, credit scores, and other products. That move brought the number of entries to 90,000, an almost fivefold increase.