Letter to CFPB on the Consumer Response Intake Form

Ms. Lindsay Abate
Senior Policy Analyst
Office of Information and Regulatory Affair
Office of Management and Budget 
Eisenhower Executive Office Building
1650 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20503

Dear Ms. Abate,

The American Bankers Association (ABA) appreciates the opportunity to comment on the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's (Bureau or CFPB) request for an extension, with modification, of the Office of Management and Budget's (OMB) approval of the existing information collection titled "Consumer Response Intake Form" (Extension Request). Consumers use the Consumer Response Intake Form (Intake Form) to submit a complaint to the Bureau regarding a financial product or service, which the Bureau forwards to the appropriate financial institution for response.

The Intake Form asks for information about the product or service referenced in the complaint and information about the consumer filing the complaint. Among other changes, the Bureau requests approval by OMB of four fields it proposes to add to the Intake Form to capture certain demographic information about the consumer: (1) gender; (2) race; (3) whether the consumer is of Hispanic, Latino, or Spanish origin; and (4) the consumer's preferred language.

As OMB is aware, the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA) requires OMB to analyze whether a proposed information collection (or proposed modification of an existing collection) provides practical benefit to the agency and minimizes the burden on members of the public who will be asked to complete the agency's form. The Bureau asserts that collecting demographic information about the gender, race, and ethnicity of a consumer submitting a complaint will help the agency "gain insights about the populations [it] serve[s], identify emerging issues, and pinpoint what areas may benefit from new or revised educational tools." Although we support the Bureau's stated purposes for gathering this demographic information, we also anticipate that the Bureau and other stakeholders will use the information to make assertions about whether financial institutions are treating all consumers fairly.

ABA and our member banks support fair, objective, and transparent enforcement of civil rights and fair lending laws. However, we are concerned that the proposed collection of information about the gender, race, and ethnicity of a consumer submitting a complaint will be used to compare the treatment of different demographic groups, and we do not believe it can be used to conduct a fair and reliable fair lending analysis. Moreover, we are concerned that the CFPB will use this data to look for disparities based on race, etc., across all complaints, not just those related to extensions of credit. As noted in our whitepaper, Unfairness and Discrimination: Examining the CFPB's Conflation of Distinct Statutory Concepts, ABA does not believe that the CFPB is authorized to extend fair lending laws beyond the bounds carefully set by Congress.

As the Bureau acknowledges, the complaints submitted do not reflect a "statistical sample of consumers' experiences in the marketplace" and are "not necessarily representative of all consumers/ experiences with a financial product or company." Instead, complaints are submitted by a self-selecting cohort of consumers—i.e., those consumers who have the time and inclination to submit a complaint to the Bureau. Also, providing the demographic information will be voluntary, and some consumers will choose not to provide it. Therefore, the Bureau will have demographic data on a subset of those consumers that chose to submit a complaint. This data cannot fairly and reliably be used to reach conclusions regarding whether a bank is treating all customers equitably.

Download the comment letter to read the full text.