A major financial industry association launched a multimedia campaign aimed at derailing the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (CFPB) plan to add consumer narratives to its complaint database. The Financial Services Roundtable, which represents some of the nation’s largest financial services providers, said the bureau’s proposal likely would result in the dissemination of inaccurate and misleading information.
The group’s media push includes advertising in DC Metro stations, as well as a social media ad buy. The Roundtable also launched a website — cfpbrumors.com — dedicated to criticizing the CFPB’s plan.
The bureau has handled more than 400,000 complaints to date, and in June 2012, the agency began to publicize information on certain complaints via its consumer complaint database.
The public complaint database now includes anonymous, individual-level information about the complaints received by the CFPB, including the date of submission, the consumer’s ZIP code, the relevant company, the product type, the issue the consumer is complaining about and the company’s response. However, it does not include narrative information that consumers provide when they submit a complaint to the bureau.
The CFPB would add consumer narratives to the database under a proposed policy unveiled for public comment on July 16. Comments are due by Sept. 22.
Industry participants previously voiced concern that consumer complaints, and narratives in particular, may contain incorrect information based, in some instances, on a consumer’s misunderstanding of what happened. Such instances could lead other consumers to draw erroneous conclusions from narratives and other data the CFPB makes available, they said.
In its proposal, the CFPB reiterated its stance that “the marketplace of ideas” would be able to determine what the bureau’s complaint data shows. To further mitigate industry concerns, the CFPB said its policy proposal would provide for the public release of the company’s response side-by-side to the consumer’s complaint.
“This process will assure that, to the extent there are factual disputes, both sides of the dispute can be made public,” the CFPB said.
The Roundtable wasn’t so sure.
“The CFPB’s plan to host, and essentially endorse, unverified complaints on a government website — a place where consumers should be going to get only facts — is not helpful for consumers,” the group said in an Aug. 20 statement. “This new proposal will be a disservice to consumers who expect to get factual information from an agency that was created to help consumers. The CFPB, and all federal regulators, should consider how they can be more transparent and not rush this proposal without full debate. Again, rumors don’t equal facts.”
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