Two Democratic senators are demanding the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau explain recent changes to its Consumer Complaint Portal, alleging the updates were made at the urging of the credit reporting industry and are designed to suppress the volume of complaints submitted to the agency.
In a letter sent July 15 to Acting Director Russell Vought, Sen. Andy Kim [D-N.J.] and Sen. Elizabeth Warren [D-Mass.], the Ranking Member of the Senate Banking Committee, said the changes have made it harder for consumers to file complaints and asked the Bureau to respond to a series of questions by July 30.
The changes, announced by the CFPB on June 24, add new hurdles for consumers filing credit reporting complaints. The portal now displays a bold-faced warning stating that consumers “must first dispute inaccurate or incomplete information” with the credit reporting agency and instructs them not to submit a complaint unless 45 days have elapsed since filing that dispute or the dispute is no longer pending. Consumers who proceed must attest to those conditions. The Bureau also implemented a two-factor authentication requirement using both an email address and a mobile phone number.
The senators said no statute or regulation requires consumers to dispute an error with a credit reporting company or wait 45 days before complaining to the CFPB. They also questioned how the authentication requirement will accommodate consumers without mobile phones or email addresses, as well as third parties like credit counselors and legal aid staff who file complaints on behalf of clients.
The letter draws a direct line between the changes and a January 27 comment letter from the Consumer Data Industry Association and its members, Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion, which asked the CFPB to place a dispute-first notice at the start of the complaint process and implement phone-based two-factor authentication, among other requests. The senators noted the CFPB’s press release said the agency is “continuing to work, including with the Credit Reporting Agencies” on the complaint process.
The stakes are significant for the industry. Credit reporting complaints account for roughly 85% of all complaints submitted to the CFPB, and the agency received more than 5.8 million credit or consumer reporting complaints in 2025, more than double the prior year’s total.
Kim pressed Vought on the changes at a Senate Banking Committee hearing on the CFPB’s semi-annual report, saying he has “real concerns about this overhaul” and questioning why new restrictions were placed on a tool so many consumers have used.
Among the questions the senators want answered: whether the CDIA’s demands drove the changes, copies of all communications between the Bureau and the association since January 2025, and what evidence the CFPB has of “abuse” of the complaint system beyond an increase in volume.
