CFPB Discontinues Publication of Unverified Consumer Complaints
The federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau will no longer publish unverified complaint narratives and visualizations in its Consumer Complaint Database, the agency announced, noting the practice remains “entirely discretionary.”
The policy change was announced Friday in a press release posted to the agency’s website.
“Many years of experience have demonstrated that the utility of such publication is minimal, while often causing confusion and providing misleading data,” the complaint states. “By their very nature, complaint narratives reflect negative consumer experiences and present only one side of an issue.”
American Financial Services Association officials posted a supportive response at the trade group’s website.
“A complaint is a claim, not a finding. When the Bureau publishes an unverified narrative, it presents one side of a story that no one has checked, then invites the public to treat it as fact,” AFSA’s post states, in part.
The news follows last week’s announcement by Federal Trade Commission Andrew Ferguson that the FTC has officially abandoned the “pernicious” legal theory of disparate impact in its pursuit of discrimination claims.
