Richard Cordray, director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, told lawmakers on Tuesday that the agency’s hotly debated complaints database will reach 1 million submissions by the end of the week.
“I think (it will be) Thursday,” Cordray told the Senate Banking Committee this week during testimony regarding the CFPB’s role in the $185 million fine levied against Wells Fargo.
While the complaints that have been filed in the wake of the Wells issue are not predicted to be in regard to its auto finance practice, the database has been a thorn in the side of lenders since it was launched in 2011, as much as it is a tool for the CFPB to investigate fraud.
As of the latest data reported from September 19, there have been 4,582 auto-related complaints recorded for 2016 in the CFPB database. During that same time period a year ago, consumers logged slightly fewer complaints at 4,266. So far, 2016 has 7.4% more complaints than last year and is on track to surpass last year’s 5,860 auto-related complaints.
Of course, one of the central criticisms of the CFPB’s database is that the numbers do not provide context to the legitimacy or value of the complaints.
In the case of Wells Fargo, the agency was able to use the user complaints to in part uncover fraud, but it’s unclear what repercussions, if any, will come to the auto financing industry as the database approaches the 1 million mark.
View real-time updates of the complaints as they are submitted here.
