NYT-

Financial companies have worked to diminish the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s powers since the day the agency was created. Now, they’re on the brink of having one of their top demands granted: an end to the regulator’s public database of complaints about their products and services.

Since 2011, the bureau has maintained an open, searchable record of more than one million consumer reports about inaccurate debt collections, illegal fees, improper overdraft charges, mistakes on loans and other problems. By law, the consumer bureau has to collect those complaints. But it is not legally required to share them online.

Mick Mulvaney, the bureau’s acting director, hinted Tuesday that he would like to end that public access.

“I don’t see anything in here that says I have to run a Yelp for financial services sponsored by the federal government,” he said at a banking industry conference in Washington. “I don’t see anything in here that says that I have to make all of those public.”

[NEW YORK TIMES]

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