CFPB to Hold Field Hearing in Seattle on Debt Collection

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) said Wednesday that it will be hosting a field hearing later this month in Seattle on the topic of debt collection. The event is scheduled for Wednesday, Oct. 24, 2012, at 10 a.m.

A location for the hearing has yet to be announced. But the CFPB, in a “Save the Date” message, noted that agency Director Richard Cordray will be at the event and will speak.

In addition to Cordray, the CFPB said that the hearing would feature “testimony from consumer groups, industry representatives, and members of the public.” It is not known if ARM industry representatives were specifically invited or if space will be reserved for those that are interested.

The hearing is free and open to the public, but the agency is asking those interested in attending to RSVP. Anyone who wants to go to the event should email cfpb.events@cfpb.gov with your full name and organizational affiliation.

The CFPB also announced Wednesday that it has updated its consumer complaints database. The database, which launched in June, had been in “beta” mode. That designation has been removed.

But the CFPB noted that it will continue to make improvements to the database going forward, like including additional financial product complaints. The database currently shows only complaints about consumer credit cards. The agency did announce that it is making available credit card complaint data stretching back to December 2011.

The complaints database announcement comes on the heels of an evaluation by the Office of Inspector General for the Federal Reserve of the CFPB’s consumer complaint collection process.