The Financial Services Roundtable has launched as multimedia campaign to challenge the CFPB’s proposal to expand the consumer complaint data that it publicly discloses to include complaint narratives.

In its announcement of the campaign, the Roundtable called the proposal a “plan that may misinform consumers by posting unverified, anonymous and potentially inaccurate complaints about financial services companies on a government website.” As part of the campaign, the Roundtable launched a new website, CFPBRumors.com, that describes the proposal, identifies various problems with the proposal, discusses its potential impact, and questions the CFPB’s timing for implementing the proposal and its justification for the proposal. The Roundtable also plans to use social media and advertisements posted in Washington D.C. metro stations to target the CFPB’s proposal.

The concerns with the CFPB’s proposal noted by the Roundtable are well-justified. We have long shared industry’s concern about disclosing unverified data and observed that the inclusion of consumer narratives will only serve to increase the reputational risks inherent in such disclosures.