Making Credit Card Complaints Public

by Stuart Shapiro

“Sunshine is the best of disinfectants,” famously remarked Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis.  The Consumer Protection Financial Bureau, which the GOP fought so hard to kill, is using this principle to shine light on credit card companies.

No longer will consumer complaints only be known to the individual complainant, bank, regulator, and those in the public willing to pursue this information through the Freedom of Information Act. Instead this data-rich window into consumer financial issues will be widely available to everyone: developers, policymakers, journalists, academics, industry, and you. Our goal is to improve the transparency and efficiency of the credit card market to further empower American consumers.

And just to be clear, no personally-identifiable information, such as a consumer’s name, credit card number, or mailing address will be made available via the Consumer Complaint Database.

Disclosure is a low-cost way of achieving regulatory goals.  Bravo to the CFPB for making this information available to the American public.

By: Stuart Shapiro

Stuart is a professor and the Director of the Public Policy
program at the Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers
University. He teaches economics and cost-benefit analysis and studies
regulation in the United States at both the federal and state levels.
Prior to coming to Rutgers, Stuart worked for five years at the Office
of Management and Budget in Washington under Presidents Clinton and
George W. Bush.