Mulvaney Says CFPB Doesn’t Have to Run a ‘Yelp’ for Bank Customers

When speaking before a large group of bankers this week, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau acting director Mick Mulvaney said he doesn’t think the CFPB has to make the database of complaints against banks available to the public, MarketWatch staffer Francine McKenna reports.

Mulvaney said that the Dodd-Frank law that created the CFPB doesn’t require the agency to make those complaints public, adding that he doesn’t have to run a “Yelp for financial services, sponsored by the federal government.”

Advocates consider the database an invaluable resource in determining the difficulties consumers face when dealing with banks and other financial service providers. Industry critics say the database is a tabulation of unverified and possibly untrue complaints.

Mulvaney’s remarks on the subject got lots of chuckles and then huge applause, McKenna notes.