LAKE FOREST, Ill.—The CFPB gets a “D-” for its overall performance, asserts one analyst, who says a close analysis of the agency’s own complaint database supports the push in Washington for an overhaul of the agency.
Moebs $ervices conducted an extensive study on the CFPB’s March Complaint Report, which covers the first quarter of 2017. Since the CFPB started to collect this data in July of 2011, a total of 1,154,456 complaints over 5.75 years have been submitted.
The CFPB complaints address banks, thrifts and credit unions, as well as payday lenders and loan services. The CFPB then classifies each complaint into specific categories (see table), with the exception of overdrafts, which was taken out of the Bank Account category and made a separate category.
25 Complaints Per Depository
“The U.S. population in March of 2017 was approximately 325 million, which shows approximately one out of every 270 Americans complained to the CFPB,” explained Michael Moebs, economist and CEO of Moebs $ervices. “When comparing only the depository complaints to the total number of banks, thrifts and credit unions, there are about 25 complaints per depository. This is a seemingly very low number of complaints by either measure.
“The number of complaints is about the only information appearing valid with the CFPB complaint data,” continued Moebs. “In the March 2017 Monthly Report, the CFPB included 1,154,456 complaints. However, in the downloadable data file, they only include 648,445 complaints. There is a large amount of complaints missing in the data file, which includes information allowing for a more extensive review; 43.8% of the complaints listed in the Monthly Report are not included in the data file, which leaves speculation as to why there are so many missing.”
The downloadable complaint file has also been questioned for authenticity by some banks and credit unions, added Moebs.
“Less than 1% of depositories have complaints registered on the CFPB file. The big three banks lead the pack in complaints: Bank of America, Wells Fargo and JPMorgan Chase,” said Moebs.
CFPB Focus Misguided
Examining the available data, said Moebs, shows that the CFPB’s areas of regulatory of focus are misguided.
“The least complained about category is prepaid cards with only 0.5% complaints. Yet, this has been a major issue on the CFPB’s agenda for years,” said Moebs.
Payday loans, which 24 million Americans use, said Moebs, have very minimal complaints with 1.5% of all complaints. Overdrafts, which 17 million people use, is another low complaint category with 1.4% of all complaints, he said.
“Few Americans complain about prepaid cards, payday loans, or overdrafts, yet the CFPB continues to include these three topics in their agenda,” pointed out Moebs. “The CFPB has also had this complaint data for almost six years, which raises another question as to why the downloadable file is so incomplete. Overall the CFPB Complaint Report receives a D- grade. If a depository’s customer or member service function operated like the CFPB, a major overhaul would be needed.”