WASHINGTON—CUNA has written to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to reiterate its continuing concerns with the Bureau’s proposed Company Response Survey.
The letter follows up a revised request for information collection submitted by the CFPB to the Office of Management and Budget.
The Bureau submitted its first request Aug. 1 for approval to implement a new information collection for the CFPB’s consumer compliant database. The new collection would incorporate a survey into the complaint closing process, called the Company Response Survey.
After CUNA and a number of other entities raised concerns, the CFPB reissued the request Nov. 29 accompanied by a supporting statement that addressed but dismissed commenters’ concerns with the proposed survey, according to CUNA.
“CUNA urges the CFPB to take appropriate steps to verify the legitimacy and accuracy, to the extent possible, of a consumer’s complaint and/or compliment prior to public disclosure,” CUNA’s letter reads. “Under the current system, we believe it is possible that some institutions are effectively unable to respond to consumers’ narrative description of complaints due to privacy restrictions.”
CUNA also cautioned the CFPB from relying too heavily on consumer complaint narratives, particularly since the CFPB is a data-driven agency.
“We ask the CFPB to analyze extensively the potential benefits and costs associated with its proposed Company Response Survey,” the letter reads. “It is critical that the outlet be designed in such a way that ensures the feedback is not only as accurate as possible, but also provides relevant information that can be used by other consumers as well as by the company to aid it in improving its handling of complaints going forward.”