CFPB Data Shows Lower-Income Areas More Likely to File Complaints on Credit Reporting, ID Theft

Lower-income, mostly Black and Hispanic, communities were more likely to submit complaints to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) about credit reporting, identity theft and delinquent servicing, a report from the agency shows, per a Thursday (Sept. 23) press release.

Meanwhile, higher-income and mostly white, non-Hispanic communities were more likely to submit complaints about loan origination and performing servicing, the release stated.

Asian American and Pacific Islander communities submitted fewer delinquent servicing complaints, according to the release.

The findings were based around almost 1 million consumer complaints submitted to CFPB between 2018 and 2020, the release stated. The report used an approach to classify the complaints, between demographics, by matching the relevant consumers to census tract-level U.S. Census demographic data.

“Today’s report confirms that the experiences and concerns of communities, with consumer financial products and services, vary by race and wealth,” said CFPB Acting Director Dave Uejio in the release. “Our consumer complaint data is a crucial tool for understanding varying consumer experiences, including across racial and economic divides.”

The report found that lower-income demographics submit around 30% more complaints than communities with around 100% of the median income of their area, according to the release.

And census tracts with the greatest share of Black residents had double the complaint rates than communities who had almost no Black residents, the release stated.

Last year, the CFPB handled 542,300 complaints related to the coronavirus, an increase of 54% over the previous year. In March, the agency said more than 3,000 complaints mentioning COVID had come in since April 2020.

Read more: US Pandemic Scams, Fraud Cost Consumers $382 Million

“The pandemic has been among the most disruptive long-term events we will see in our lifetimes,” Uejio said at the time. “Not surprisingly, the shockwaves it sent across the planet were felt deeply in the consumer financial marketplace.”