The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau today went public with more than 7,700 narratives to describe consumer complaints, with several reverse mortgage complaints among them.
The level of detail now provided by the CFPB allows consumers to offer a “narrative” of each complaint, detailing the experience, circumstances, parties, and other specifics about their situations. Before publishing the complaints, the CFPB eliminates personal information such as locations and dates, to protect the identity and financial specifics of the complaining consumer.
The agency announced its initiative in March, with the narratives being made public Thursday by a searchable database.
Narratives allow the agency and the public to better understand the nature of the issues consumers are having with financial products, the CFPB says.
“The Bureau’s work improves as we hear directly from consumers,” said CFPB Director Richard Cordray. “Every complaint tells us what people are facing in the financial marketplace. Publishing these consumer stories today is a historic milestone that we believe will lead to better outcomes for everyone.”
Among more than 1,700 mortgage complaints, the database includes just a dozen reverse mortgage complaints by RMD’s search.
In addition to the consumer narrative, the database also makes information about the complaint available to users, such as the company name, the date on which the complaint was sent to the company, whether the company responded to the complaint and if it was resolved, whether its response was timely, and whether the consumer disputed the response. A complaint ID is assigned to each.
The CFPB first made consumer complaints public in June 2012, without the narrative feature.
Written by Elizabeth Ecker
