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The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau said it wants to improve customer service at big banks and credit unions by launching an initiative that it said would help customers “assert their rights to better customer service.”
The CFPB has issued a request for information to gather data and consumer experiences related to obstacles preventing people from receiving “high standards of customer service and high-quality human interactions with their banks or credit unions,” the agency said in a statement.
CFPB Director Rohit Chopra announced the initiative yesterday at a public town hall in Montana.
“Customers of large banks should not have to run through an obstacle course to get a straight answer about their account,” Chopra said in the statement. “We are taking steps to ensure the legally enshrined right to obtain basic customer service.”
The 2010 Consumer Financial Protection Act includes a provision that gives consumers the right to get information, including supporting written documentation, about their account from a bank or credit union with more than $10 billion in assets. The CFPB said it has not enforced or issued additional policy guidance about this provision.
“Many large financial institutions are increasingly shifting toward algorithmic banking and away from relationship banking,” the CFPB said. “[The] initiative is part of a broader effort to restore relationship banking in an era of consolidation and digitization. The decline of relationship banking has deprived some consumers of customized advice, responsiveness, and care.”
The CFPB in its statement referenced its annual analysis of complaints, noting that customers reported poor customer service and struggles to obtain basic information. Issues cited by the CFPB included the length of time to get problems solved, needing to repeat information to multiple people and employees who were not knowledgeable about the customer’s situation.
Information requested by the CFPB includes:
- What information do people request from their bank and how are they using that information?
- What information are consumers currently unable to obtain from their bank?
- Does the way customers contact their bank make a difference in their ability to get information?
- What do bank customers experience in terms of wait times, disconnected calls, the ability to speak to a person at a specific location, or the quality of responses to questions?
The request for information also asks whether there is value in banks disclosing who they share account information with and the compensation received for sharing that information.
The CFPB will accept comments for 30 days after the request for information is published in the Federal Register.
