In 2018, it had asked for comments on potential changes to the database, and received almost 26,000 responses from a wide variety of stakeholders, including government officials, consumer groups, mortgage lenders, academics and individual consumers. Former CFPB Acting Director, Mick Mulvaney, had even mentioned the possibility of closing the publicly-available feature.

Instead, current Director Kathy Kraninger has announced that the CFPB has reviewed all comments received, and that the changes made are intended to address concerns raised in the comments and to provide enhanced data to benefit consumers.

Among the changes announced are:

• Disclosures making it clear that the database is not a statistical sample of consumer experience in the marketplace
• Highlight answers to common consumer questions before the consumer submits a complaint
• Highlight consumer ability to send questions and issues directly to the mortgage lender
• Future dynamic and visual tools to help database users understand current and recent marketplace conditions
• Future aggregation and analysis features
• Exploration of a lender’s ability to respond publicly to individual complaints

The CFPB also noted that, to date, lenders have made timely responses to more than 97 percent of the over 1.3 million complaints sent to them through the database. To review a particular lender’s complaint history, the database is available here.