On November 30, the CFPB Ombudsman’s Office
published its
annual report, which detailed inquiries handled by the office, included a new FAQ section, and described the second year of the Ombudsman’s post-examination survey of supervised entities. The Ombudsman reviewed some pertinent topics the CFPB faced in the past year, including recognizing imposter scams, distinguishing between new and duplicate consumer complaints, assisting consumers with diminished capacity, and helping the public contact the CFPB.
In detail, and on recognizing imposter frauds, the Ombudsman provided CFPB resources and posted a blog on scam awareness in English and Spanish. On distinguishing between new and existing complaints, consumers expressed concern that the CFPB closed their cases without providing a reason or that the CFPB mistakenly identified complaints as duplicative. The report described the CFPB’s process for identifying duplicate complaints, noted consumers’ concerns, and indicated that the CFPB continues to review this issue. On assisting consumers with diminished capacity, the Ombudsman discussed challenges with third-party entities assisting with a case, as well as offering resources on power of attorney questions. And on helping the public contact the CFPB, the Ombudsman identified contact points that could improve, such as the CFPB’s website and telephone switchboard, and asked the CFPB to update the contact points.
