WASHINGTON—The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has launched the first in a new series of monthly reports to highlight key trends from consumer complaints submitted to the Bureau.
The first report indicates that the most-complained-about financial product or service is debt collection.
The monthly report includes complaint data on company performance, complaint volume, state and local information, and product trends. The CFPB said that each month the report will spotlight a particular product and geographic location.
The current report provides a closer look at debt collection complaints and complaints from consumers in Milwaukee, Wis. “The reports will provide insight for the public into the hundreds of thousands of consumer complaints on financial products and services handled by the CFPB,” the Bureau stated.
“Consumer complaints are the CFPB’s compass and play a central role in everything we do. They help us identify and prioritize problems for potential action,” said CFPB Director Richard Cordray in a release. “These monthly reports will enable us to share that data with the public more regularly, so that everyone can benefit from the information.”
The Monthly Complaint Report can be found here.
Highlights from the current report:
- Complaint volume: For June 2015, the most-complained-about financial product or service was debt collection, representing about 32% of complaints submitted. Of the 23,400 complaints handled, over 7,400 of them were about debt collection. The second most-complained-about consumer product was mortgages, accounting for over 4,700 complaints. The third most-complained-about financial product or service was credit reporting, accounting for over 4,300 complaints.
- Product trends: Consumer loan complaints showed the greatest percentage increase from the same time last year, nearly doubling from approximately 660 complaints to 1,020 complaints on average per month.
- State information: Hawaii, West Virginia, and Maine experienced the greatest complaint volume increases from the same time last year; with Hawaii up 41%, West Virginia up 38%, and Maine up 38%. South Dakota, Iowa, and Rhode Island experienced the greatest complaint volume decrease from the same time last year, with South Dakota down 40%, Iowa down 14%, and Rhode Island down 12%.
- Most-complained-about companies: While company-level information should be considered in the context of company size, the top three companies that received the most complaints from CFPB for February through April 2015 were Equifax, Experian, and Bank of America. Equifax experienced the greatest jump in complaints over the same period last year, up 8%. Mortgage servicer Ocwen experienced the greatest decrease in average monthly complaint volume, down 29% from the same period last year.