The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau will cease publication of unverified complaint narratives and visualizations, arguing the utility of publicizing narratives is minimal “while often causing confusion and providing misleading data,” according to an announcement.
The CFPB began publishing consumer complaint narratives in its Consumer Complaint Database in 2015. Consumers could choose whether to provide narratives along with their complaints, and the bureau scrubbed all identifying information about the person submitting the narrative before publication. In a statement today, the bureau noted it retains full discretion over whether to publish the narratives and has several concerns about their usefulness and fairness.
“By their very nature, complaint narratives reflect negative consumer experiences and present only one side of an issue,” CFPB said. “Additionally, these unverified allegations do not always describe violations of the law and the complaint process does not verify the allegations in each consumer’s complaint narrative, nor can it, as a practical matter.”
Still, the CFPB said it considers previously published narratives to be subject to the Freedom of Information Act and therefore are subject to FOIA disclosure.
