The public database of complaints about banks and financial firms maintained by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau may not be online too much longer, if acting director Mick Mulvaney’s comments Tuesday are any indication.
Speaking at a meeting of the American Bankers Association Tuesday, the Trump appointee said he intends to follow the law guiding the bureau, and that the online database may not be part of it.
“I don’t see anything in here that says I have to have a Yelp run by the federal government,” Mulvaney quipped.
The bureau collects complaints from consumers over credit cards, debt collectors, mortgage servicing, and much more. It then publishes them on an online database, scrubbed of the consumer’s identifying information but complete with the name of the bank or the financial firm.
Banks have complained that the database subjects them to public scrutiny over complaints that haven’t been authenticated or vetted. The database was set up by Mulvaney’s predecessor, the bureau’s first director, Obama appointee Richard Cordray.
Mulvaney said to the receptive crowd of bankers Tuesday that the law requires him to maintain a database of complaints, but not necessarily to make it public.
In March, the bureau put out a request for comments from the public on changing the database, the first step toward changing it.
