Cordray says Consumer Complaints are Key to Helping Consumers and the Marketplace

Inrnaddition to announcing the availability of a new consumer complaint database, Richard Cordray, Director of the Consumer FinancialrnProtection Bureau (CFPB) told attendees at a Consumer Response Field Hearingrnthat complaints give the new agencyrnthree distinct and important ways to help consumers. </p

Eachrncomplaint is a chance to evaluate a perceived problem and see if it can bernresolved quickly.  CFPB has received morernthan 130,000 complaints from individual consumers, including complaints aboutrnmortgages, credit cards, student loans, auto loans, bank accounts, creditrnreports, and more and has helped consumers secure millions of dollars inrnmonetary relief and non-monitory solutions such as cleaning up credit reports.  In this way he said, our consumer responsernteam is making a real difference in the financial marketplace.</p

Thernsecond important way these complaints make a difference is by informing CFPB’s workrnand helping to identify and prioritize problems.  “We know that if we hearrnabout a particular problem from fifty consumers, that likely means it loomsrnlarger than if we hear about it from two.  We know that if we begin to seerna disturbing trend among the complaints we receive, that we should considerrnallocating some of our limited resources to combat that particular problem”rnCordray said.</p

Consumerrncomplaints are also a source of information that staff consults in examiningrnfinancial institutions.  They provide leads for enforcement work, investigatingrnand addressing potential wrongdoing and they help guide dealing with issues ofrnconcern through consumer education and engagement.  “In fact, we findrncomplaint information to be so helpful that we also access the FTC’s ConsumerrnSentinel database to supplement our own,” Cordray said.  The Bureau is also mindful of the need tornshare such data in return, so recently it launched a secure Government Portalrnto allow other federal and state law enforcement officials to view Bureau datarnto inform their own work.  </p

Itrnis important to recognize that even when complaints do not lead to anrnindividual solution or restitution, they still make a difference.  Peoplernwho contact the Consumer Bureau are constantly informing its priorities andrnimproving its work.</p

Third,rnthe accumulation of complaints from many thousands of individual consumersrnyields an ever-more informative impression of what is happening to consumers enrnmasse in the marketplace and thus can be helpful to industry and to consumersrnthemselves in figuring out how they approach consumer financial issues.   The key point is that not all, or even most,rnconsumer protection comes from government agencies.  The first two places to look for consumerrnprotection are out in the marketplace, in how a business decides to treat itsrncustomers and in how effectively those customers are able to stand up forrnthemselves when they are mistreated.</p

ThernAmerican economy, even just the financial marketplace portion, is among thernsingle largest uncoordinated aggregation of human behavior everrndeveloped.  It does not operate according to some central plan, but by thernendless interactions of hundreds of millions of independent actors, each withrntheir own needs, wants, expectations, patterns, and reactions.  Cordrayrnsaid even understanding what is happening in these huge, sprawling arenas ofrnhuman life is a formidable task as we see each month as experts make erroneous predictionsrnabout growth, employment, prices, and many other economic and financialrnvariables.  The humbling lesson is thatrnevery additional piece of data that can shed more light on hard subjects likernthese is well worth having.</p

Thernability to create and utilize new data that illuminates what is happening tornconsumers, in real time, can be immensely valuable.  The more data we can assemble, process, andrnshare, the more complete and accurate picture we can forge of this immense andrnseemingly contradictory creature, and the more we can come to a betterrnunderstanding of it.</p

Cordrayrnsaid that the launch today of the expanded CFPB consumer complaint databasernwill allow the public to easily track, sort, search, and download thisrndata.  “With all of this information being assembled, the most interestingrnthing to watch will be not what we do with it, but what you</bdo with it."  The amount of information that can be gleaned from the ConsumerrnComplaint Database is gigantic.  </p