The CFPB announced on March 14 that it has begun sharing consumer complaints with the FTC’s Consumer Sentinel database. In addition to the FTC, the database can be accessed by other federal agencies and hundreds of state and local agencies. Last August, the CFPB announced that it had entered into an agreement with the FTC that gave the CFPB access to complaints submitted by others to the database and in which the CFPB agreed to share the consumer complaints it received.
As we reported, Director Cordray has stated that the CFPB will be entering into a Memorandum of Understanding with state attorneys general to share information on consumer financial protection issues. According to news reports, Roy Cooper, North Carolina’s AG, has stated that the FTC’s database will be a central component of that sharing process.
The Dodd-Frank Act, by codifying the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2009 decision in Cuomo v. Clearing House Association, LLC, authorized state AGS to bring civil actions against national banks and federal savings associations to enforce non-preempted state laws. We will be watching to see whether complaints shared by the CFPB alleging conduct by national banks or federal savings associations that violates state law become the trigger for enforcement actions by state AGs that test the scope of post-Dodd-Frank federal preemption.