Consumer Complaints Regarding Financial Products
Lenders have worked to limit customer dissatisfaction with credit cards, a reality that may improve these institutions’ ability to grow credit card portfolios in the weeks and months ahead, particularly through the thoughtful application of improved standards via customer management software. At the same time, a significant deterrent may be the fact that complaints for other types of financial extensions continue to climb in number, according to the head of the country’s leading consumer finance group.
Richard Cordray, director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, spoke to the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs earlier this month, delivering the agency’s semi-annual report on consumer finance for the first six months of 2012.
According to Cordray, the agency – which itself is only around a year old – has implemented a database of consumer complaints related to financial products. Initially restricted to credit cards, the database now includes recorded complaints for mortgages, consumer and student loans, and bank accounts.
The agency has received more than 72,000 complaints related to these financial products as of September 3. “The pace of complaints has been increasing over the past year,” Cordray told legislators, though he added that consumer complaints related to credit cards are actually surprisingly low. Cordray said this may be because of new federal regulations and increased attention to customer service on the part of lenders, according to Bloomberg BusinessWeek.
Case management software can be the platform businesses need to evaluate credit portfolios and determine the strengths and weaknesses of client populations. With this tool, lenders can identify key cross-selling opportunities among existing customers and take action against riskier assets – both efforts that can lead to improved customer satisfaction and healthier financial portfolios.
