{"id":15414,"date":"2018-04-25T15:18:02","date_gmt":"2018-04-25T23:18:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/associatednews.info\/content\/the-consumer-complaints-database-that-could-disappear-from-view\/"},"modified":"2018-04-25T15:18:02","modified_gmt":"2018-04-25T23:18:02","slug":"the-consumer-complaints-database-that-could-disappear-from-view","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/associatednews.info\/content\/the-consumer-complaints-database-that-could-disappear-from-view\/","title":{"rendered":"The Consumer Complaints Database That Could Disappear From View"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Chris Arnold<\/a><\/span> <\/p>\n

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\n Mick Mulvaney, acting director of the CFPB, testifies at a House hearing. Mulvaney says he doesn’t need to run “a Yelp for financial services sponsored by the federal government.”<\/p>\n

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Manuel Balce Ceneta\/AP<\/p>\n

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Manuel Balce Ceneta\/AP<\/p>\n

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When a consumer has a complaint about a bank, whether it’s dealing with a mortgage or a credit card, right now there’s a place to lodge that complaint online.<\/p>\n

It’s easy to click around and search for other similar complaints. And it’s a tool<\/a> consumers can use when trying to weigh whether to do business with a particular bank or other kind of financial firm. Investigators like this database as well, because when thousands of similar complaints pop up, it could be a red flag that there’s a problem at a bank that they need to dig into.<\/p>\n

The Trump administration’s Mick Mulvaney was in the news again this week because he said he wanted to shut down public access to this popular government database at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.<\/p>\n

The industry likes this idea and has long complained about the database, because it says the complaints aren’t vetted enough. Consumer groups say that keeping the public from seeing the database is a move that panders to companies the consumer regulator is supposed to be policing.<\/p>\n