The National Association of Consumer Advocates has released the results of a survey indicating how the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau “benefits consumers directly, and indirectly,” through its complaint database and enforcement activities.
Consumer advocates use the CFPB consumer complaints database as a place for their clients to launch grievances against financial services organizations, but also to mine for similar issues faced by other consumers. The advocates also use the CFPB’s rulemaking and enforcement activities to shape their arguments during lawsuits and interactions on behalf of consumers. In short, the survey details the comprehensiveness to which advocates are using the CFPB to help themselves in their cases. The CFPB offers a “fully developed resource” for consumer advocates, the survey concludes.
Ninety-six percent of the survey’s respondents said the CFPB has been “very” or “somewhat” helpful in their representation of clients, and 98% said they have visited the CFPB’s website to help in their work on behalf of consumers. All of the respondents who are legal services attorneys, which provide free legal assistance to low-income individuals, said they have used the CFPB’s resources and that they have been “helpful.”
“In a nutshell, this survey of consumer advocates illustrates that Americans need the CFPB,” said Ira Rheingold, NACA’s executive director, in a statement. “Any action to delay or reverse rules, deprive CFPB of funding, stop data collection, interfere with the public complaint system, or weaken enforcement work, will devastate millions of people if they can no longer rely on the bureau’s vigilance to protect them from ripoffs.”
