If the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection decides to make its consumer complaint database private, the former Attorney General of Ohio is going to try and create a copy of the database that the public can have access to.
Marc Dann, who was Attorney General of Ohio a decade ago, has already downloaded the existing database and posted it on his website. Should the BCFP decide to no longer keep the database open to the public, Dann said he would file monthly Freedom of Information Act requests for the data and continue to publish it. If the FOIA requests are denied, Dann said he would sue.
Dann, who now represents individuals facing mortgage foreclosures, resigned from office after admitting to having an affair with a staff member.
Mick Mulvaney, the acting director of the BCFP, has questioned why the consumer complaint database needs to be made available to the public. A number of industry trade groups, including ACA International, have expressed concerns about the complaint database, including a lack of context and inherent biases. Academics and consumer advocacies, who have used the complaint database for research and other reports, do not want to see their access eliminated.
Dann’s version of the database can be found at www.dannlaw.com/complaint-database/. Along with publishing the database, Dann also maintains a “Hall of Shame,” calling the companies listed, “the companies behind many of the worst consumer frauds and scams ever perpetrated on the American public.” The companies currently on the Hall of Shame are:
- Equifax Inc.
- Bank of America, National Association
- Experian Information Solutions Inc.
- TransUnion Intermediate Holdings Inc.
- Wells Fargo & Company
- JP Morgan Chase & Co.
- Citibank N.A.
- Capital One Financial Corporation
- Ocwen Loan Servicing LLC
- Navient Solutions LLC
- Nationstar Mortgage
