Citizen Contacting in Response to Crisis: Voicing Grievances to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

Abstract

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) came into being in response to the housing and debt crisis that accompanied the Great Recession. Created as a means for aggrieved consumers to bring problems to the attention of federal regulators empowered to fine banking and finance companies, the inflow of complaints began late in 2010 and has steadily risen in the years since. This research examines the variable emergence of complaints across 5 years, asking what types of constituencies are most likely to register grievances with the CFPB. The filing of complaints is mostly responsive to the presence of middle and upper income populations with mortgages, though contacts are also high from African American neighborhoods. Government contacting among lower income populations is facilitated by the presence of counseling and consultative services at the grassroots. Notably, legal aid services often present in lower and moderate income neighborhoods are associated with higher complaint frequency for several financial products. Through street-level consultative organizations, the gap in government service provision separating the affluent, who complain on their own, and less privileged, who do not know where to express their grievances, can be reduced.