Credit Cards, Credit Reporting Disputes Lead FDIC Consumer Complaints

According to the FDIC’s Consumer Compliance Supervisory Highlights, the agency processed a surge in consumer complaints last year led by credit cards as the most frequently cited product and credit reporting disputes as the most frequent issue. There was a 14 percent increase in written complaints and telephone inquiries in 2024 compared to 2023, according to the report.

The report also noted that the FDIC’s Consumer Response Unit (CRU) acknowledged written complaints within two weeks of receiving them and responded to about 99 percent of them within established timeframes. PYMNTS noted that 10,860 complaints were directly investigated by the CRU, which found 305 errors and 132 federal consumer protection regulation violations by institutions.

Credit cards were the most common banking product cited in the complaints, followed by checking accounts, installment loans, and residential real estate loans. Credit reporting disputes and discrepancy transaction errors were the most common issues raised and third-party providers were implicated in 13 percent more complaint cases from 2023.

The consumer protection statutes that were reported as most frequently violated were the Truth in Lending Act (TILA), the Flood Disaster Protection Act (FDPA), the Truth in Savings Act (TISA), the Electronic Fund Transfer Act (EFTA), and the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA). These accounted for 73 percent of the 1,275 violations of consumer protection statutes.

Alternatively, 97 percent of FDIC-supervised institutions received satisfactory or better ratings of consumer compliance at the end of last year. FDIC-supervised institutions also provided $33.3 million in voluntary restitution payments to nearly 400,000 consumers for consumer protection law violations.