Lemberg Law, the firm run by consumer attorney Sergei Lemberg, has performed its own analysis of the complaint data filed by individuals with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and has noted three trends. The analysis provides some interesting context into how consumer attorneys view the CFPB’s complaint database and may indicate what is of interest to plaintiff’s attorneys.
The first observation noted by Lemberg’s analysis is that the number of complaints continues to increase year after year. That the number of complaints has increased every year since the CFPB took over the complaint database from the Federal Trade Commission is an indication that consumers are “asserting” their rights, according to Lemberg Law.
Diving into specific categories of complaints, the analysis notes that complaints against credit reporting companies and student lending companies are on “track to double” from 2016 to 2017.
While the number of complaints about debt collection and credit cards has remained relatively flat, the number of complaints about student loans has skyrocketed, and is on pace to double the number of complaints filed in 2016. This could be related to a specific company, Navient, which is a student loan servicing giant that the CFPB and state attorneys general sued in January 2017 for allegedly failing to process payments correctly, providing incorrect payment information, and not responding to borrower complaints.
According to Lemberg’s analysis, there have been more than 76,000 complaints against the credit reporting bureaus so far this year, up from 44,081 in 2016.
Diving deeper into specific companies, Lemberg Law noted that complaints against Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion have “surged” in the past year, along with complaints against Navient. Bank of America is the company that has received the most complaints in the six years that data is available from the CFPB.
Member did note one debt collection company in its analysis, but, for the most part, did not make many references to the ARM industry in its study of CFPB complaint data.
