Anyone can now read more than 7,700 specific consumer complaints about financial companies to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau online.
The consumer agency went live with its complaints database Thursday, taking a step that its officials have said will improve consumers’ ability to be heard but that the financial services industry has criticized as unfair and unaccountable.
“Every complaint tells us what people are facing in the financial marketplace,” bureau Director Richard Cordray said Thursday in announcing that the site was live. “Publishing these consumer stories today is a historic milestone that we believe will lead to better outcomes for everyone.”
The complaint database is accessible to anyone. It features comments from people sent to the bureau regarding all kinds of financial products, including mortgages, credit cards, student loans, medical debt and payday loans.
The site posts new complaints within 15 days, giving the company accused of mistreating a customer a chance to respond.
All the complaints are searchable, and the data relating to the kind of complaint, company and geographic location is available for anyone to analyze.
Each complaint is scrubbed of information that could identify the person who submitted it.
Despite industry concerns that the database would provide a platform for unverifiable or spurious accusations, the bureau maintained that it included adequate safeguards to allow the companies to respond.
