By Dan Smith
President and CEO, Consumer Data Industry Association (CDIA)
Consumers should have a clear, reliable way to raise concerns when something goes wrong with a financial product or service. The CFPB complaint portal plays that role, and it should remain available to consumers who need help.
This is true in credit reporting, as it is throughout the financial services industry. Credit reporting agencies work every day to maintain accurate, complete records, and they take that responsibility seriously. Every year, they investigate and resolve millions of consumer disputes under the framework established by the Fair Credit Reporting Act.
Accurate credit information is the foundation of responsible lending. When information is improperly challenged or removed through abuse of complaint and dispute systems, lenders may be making decisions based on an incomplete picture of risk. Consumers can ultimately be harmed as well, particularly when they receive credit that may not align with their financial circumstances.
For that reason, our members have a real stake in seeing the portal function as intended. A complaint system only works if it can distinguish real consumer problems from efforts to game the process.
The scale of the CFPB portal has changed dramatically. According to the CFPB’s 2025 Consumer Response Annual Report, the bureau received approximately 352,000 complaints in 2019, 1.6 million in 2023, and more than 6.6 million complaints in 2025, roughly double the volume reported the year before.
Those numbers show why the portal’s integrity matters.
Across social media and in credit repair marketing, consumers are sometimes told that filing CFPB complaints can be a shortcut for removing accurate but negative information from their credit reports. Some are encouraged to submit multiple complaints about the same issue. Others are coached to characterize accurate information as identity theft or fraud in an effort to erase it. That practice, often called “credit washing,” does not protect consumers. It exploits them and diverts attention from people with genuine unresolved problems.
CDIA members are seeing more complaints that appear tied to these kinds of campaigns, including repeated submissions, and claims that do not reflect legitimate disputes.
The CFPB itself has recognized the importance of directing consumers to the proper dispute process. Recently, the Bureau reminded consumers that disputes regarding information on a credit report should begin with the credit reporting agencies under the legal framework established by the FCRA. This process exists to give consumers specific rights, investigative protections, and clear timelines for resolution. When that process is bypassed or misused, the problem is no longer limited to complaint volume. It can affect the reliability of the underlying credit information itself.
The solution is not to weaken consumer rights or make it harder for consumers to seek assistance. Quite the opposite. The goal should be to ensure that the complaint process remains effective by focusing its resources on real consumer concerns. In 2025, the CRAs responded to more than 99 percent of CFPB complaints in a timely manner. However, every fraudulent, abusive, or duplicative complaint diverts attention from consumers with genuine issues.
In practice, that means implementing stronger screening mechanisms to identify repeated, abusive, and automated submissions. It means improving identity verification and better distinguishing between valid complaints and attempts to manipulate the system. It also means reinforcing the importance of following the dispute procedures established under federal law before escalating concerns to the CFPB.
Some policymakers already recognize this challenge. Representative Andy Barr has introduced HR 7588, the Eliminating Fraud in the CFPB’s Complaint Database Act, intended to address fraud within the CFPB complaint database by requiring additional identity verification from those submitting complaints. These efforts deserve serious consideration because they seek to preserve the effectiveness of a tool that consumers rely upon.
The complaint portal remains a valuable consumer protection tool. Protecting its integrity is not about limiting consumers’ voices. It is about ensuring that legitimate consumer concerns can still be heard, addressed, and resolved.
That is a goal everyone should be able to support.