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Consumer Finance Protection Bureau

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The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has several statistical programs and initiatives that support its mission of protecting consumers in the financial marketplace. These programs are primarily focused on collecting, analyzing, and publicly disseminating data on financial products, services, and consumer behavior.

Key Statistical Programs

The CFPB's statistical work is characterized by its use of large, anonymized datasets to identify market trends and potential risks to consumers. Some of its most important programs and data resources include:

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Consumer Complaint Database: This is a publicly available database of consumer complaints about a wide variety of financial products and services, such as mortgages, credit cards, and student loans. The CFPB removes all personally identifiable information before publishing, allowing researchers, journalists, and the public to analyze trends in consumer issues and company responses.

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Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) Data: The CFPB manages and publishes the data collected under HMDA, which requires many financial institutions to report information about their mortgage lending activities. This is one of the most comprehensive sources of mortgage data available, and it's used to identify lending patterns, including those that may indicate discriminatory practices.

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Consumer Credit Trends: The CFPB publishes dashboards and reports that analyze consumer credit markets using anonymized data. These tools provide insights into trends in mortgages, credit cards, auto loans, and student loans, helping to monitor market conditions and identify potential warning signs.

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Surveys and Research: The CFPB conducts its own surveys to collect data on consumer financial well-being and behavior. A key example is the Making Ends Meet Survey, a series of surveys that examine the evolving financial status of consumers. The CFPB also publishes peer-reviewed research and reports on various topics, using both its own collected data and external sources.

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Small Business Lending Data: The CFPB is in the process of implementing a rule under the Dodd-Frank Act that will require financial institutions to collect and report data on their lending to small businesses, women-owned businesses, and minority-owned businesses. Once fully implemented, this will be a new, comprehensive source of data for understanding the small business lending market.