Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Complaint Data Now Searchable by State
by: Anna DeSimone
May 31, 2013 the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) expanded its Consumer Complaint Database to include state-by-state information. The CFPB also added complaints about money transfers and credit reporting to the database.
In March, the database expanded from more than 19,000 credit card complaints to nearly 90,000 complaints on credit cards, mortgages, student loans, bank accounts and services, and other consumer loans, like auto loans. As of today, the database contains about 113,000 complaints. The live database updates nightly; so as the CFPB handles more complaints, more are added.
The database allows the public to see what consumers complained about and why. It includes the type of complaint, the date of submission, and the company that the complaint concerns. A consumer’s identity and other personal information are not included.
Complaints are listed in the database only after the company responds to the complaint or after they have had the complaint for 15 days, whichever comes first. The CFPB uses the complaints along with other information, such as the timeliness of the company’s response, in a variety of ways, for example, to help prioritize complaints for investigation.
The Consumer Complaint Database update adds a new field to every complaint – the state it came from. While five-digit ZIP code information, self-identified by the consumer, has always been included in the complaint information, adding the state helps people more easily localize data. The state field also includes the District of Columbia, U.S. territories, and the military post office addresses of servicemembers.
According to the database, the top states per capita by mortgage complaints are: 1) New Hampshire, 2) Maryland, 3) the District of Columbia, 4) Georgia, and 5) Florida.
The CFPB database is segmented by product (e.g. credit cards, mortgages, etc.) and within the mortgage table there is “sub-product” data (e.g. conventional, FHA loan, etc.) The table also includes the following information: complaint ID, zip code, company name, date of complaint, date sent to and method of complaint submission (e.g. web, mail, referral) to the CFPB.
The figures in the chart below represent the number of records from a database of 62,338 mortgage complaints in the Mortgage Product category, as compiled by Bankers Advisory:
http://cdn.s3.webcontentor.com/OFFICE/BANKER01/files/misc_files/130329074507_3.29.13.CFPB.Anna.pdf
About the Author:
Anna DeSimone is President and Founder of Bankers Advisory, Inc.
Anna DeSimone founded Bankers Advisory in 1986 and is a nationally recognized authority in residential mortgage lending. She has received numerous industry awards and has authored more than 40 best practices guides and hundreds of articles.
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