CFPB Launches Public Story-Sharing Portal

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau announced the opening of its story portal this week on the occasion of the organization’s third birthday. The new feature allows consumers to view others’ experiences with consumer financial products in an unstructured, informal format.

“Your story will help inform how we work to protect consumers and create a fairer marketplace,” the form to submit stories says. Consumers are invited to share their experiences with banks, mortgage lenders, and other financial companies.

The portal is for sharing stories, not voicing complaints, the CFPB said, and is a separate feature from that proposed on July 16, which would allow consumers to publicly share their accounts of what happened in the CFPB’s public consumer complaint database. Of that initiative, the CFPB says, “Publishing consumer narratives would provide important context to the complaint, help the public detect specific trends in the market, aid consumer decision-making, and drive improved consumer service.”