Learn how to access and respond to consumer complaints about your company.
Congress directed the Bureau to collect, monitor, and get responses to complaints about financial products and services. Since 2011, the CFPB's Office of Consumer Response has worked to get consumers timely responses from more than 6,100 financial companies.
Each consumer complaint goes through a five-step process. Learn about each step so you know what to expect, how to respond, and how complaints are reviewed, shared, and published.
We send consumers’ complaints about consumer financial products and services—including complaints referred to the CFPB by prudential regulators and other government agencies—to the CFPB-supervised bank or credit union or to the nonbank identified by the consumer.
By statute, a primary function of the CFPB is to collect, investigate and respond to consumer complaints. Companies receive and respond to these complaints through the Company Portal, a secure online environment that protects consumer privacy and the confidentiality of company responses.
The CFPB sends complaints to banks or credit unions supervised by the CFPB. We refer complaints about banks and credit unions that are not supervised by the CFPB to the appropriate prudential federal regulator.
If you are a nonbank that provides consumer financial products and services, respond to complaints submitted to the CFPB by your customers by first getting access to your Company Portal.
Sign up to address complaints
Complete and submit the boarding form. Once we process your form, users authorized by your company will be able to log in using their company email address.
Login to respond to complaints
The CFPB expects companies to provide complete, accurate, and timely responses tailored to the issues described in each consumer’s complaint, generally within 15 calendar days.
Consumer Response analyzes consumer complaints, company responses, and consumer feedback to assess whether companies are providing accurate, complete, and timely responses.
Consumers’ complaints and companies’ responses provide the Bureau with important information about the types of challenges consumers are experiencing and the effectiveness of a company’s compliance management system.
Consistent with applicable law, the CFPB securely shares complaint information with other federal, state, and local agencies, including licensing authorities, to, among other things, facilitate supervision and enforcement activities and monitor the market for consumer financial products and services.
How we publish consumer complaintsComplaints are published in the Consumer Complaint Database after a company responds, confirming a commercial relationship with the consumer, or after 15 days, whichever comes first. The CFPB also publishes the consumer’s narrative description of their experience if the consumer opts to share it publicly and after the Bureau takes steps to remove personal information.