How to Check Your Bank's CFPB Complaint Rate
Your bank's federal complaint record is public information — but it's buried in a database most consumers don't know exists. Here's how to find it in 2 minutes and what to do with it.
What is a CFPB complaint rate?
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is a US federal agency that collects complaints from consumers about financial institutions. Every complaint is logged, sent to the institution for response, and published in a public database. As of 2026, the database contains nearly 3 million banking complaints going back to 2011.
A complaint rate takes the raw complaint count and normalises it by the institution's estimated customer base — so a large bank with many complaints can be fairly compared to a small bank with few. The rate is expressed as complaints per 1,000 customers.
How to check your bank — step by step
Search for your bank on ComplaintRate
Go to complaintrate.com/banks and find your bank in the list — or use the search on the homepage. We've scored 4,977 institutions including all major banks, credit unions, and credit card issuers.
Read the complaint rate number
The headline number is complaints per 1,000 customers. A rate of 0.50/1k means 1 in 2,000 customers filed a federal complaint. A rate of 5.0/1k means 1 in 200 did. Lower is always better.
Check the risk tier
We translate the rate into a risk tier: LOW RISK (under 0.5/1k), MODERATE (0.5–1.0/1k), HIGH RISK (1.0–2.0/1k), VERY HIGH (2.0–4.0/1k), SEVERE (above 4.0/1k). Most consumers should aim for a bank in the LOW RISK tier.
Look at the resolution rate
A high complaint rate is bad. A low resolution rate makes it worse. Check what percentage of complaints were closed with monetary relief — meaning the consumer got something back. If less than 20% of complaints result in any resolution, the institution is not just generating complaints but refusing to fix them.
Check for enforcement actions
If your bank has an active OCC or Federal Reserve enforcement order, you'll see a red banner at the top of its page. This means a federal regulator has identified problems serious enough to require formal corrective action.
Compare to alternatives
Every institution page shows recommended alternatives with lower complaint rates. If your bank is rated HIGH RISK or above, you can see which banks in the same category have significantly lower rates — and how long switching typically takes.
Is your bank on the high-risk list?
Switching banks takes about 2 hours of active effort spread across 10 days. Federal data shows which banks have significantly lower complaint rates.
What the numbers mean in practice
LOW RISK
Under 0.5/1k
Fewer than 1 in 2,000 customers filed a complaint. Genuinely good performance.
MODERATE
0.5–1.0/1k
Average range. Not alarming, but room for improvement.
HIGH RISK
1.0–2.0/1k
Significantly above average. Consider alternatives.
SEVERE
Above 2.0/1k
Systemic problems. Strong reason to switch.
One important caveat
CFPB research indicates that only around 5% of consumers who have a problem with a financial institution ever file a formal federal complaint. The CFPB database is the tip of the iceberg — the visible fraction of a much larger problem.
This means that a bank with a complaint rate of 1.0/1k may actually have a true problem rate closer to 20/1k — it's just that most affected customers didn't escalate to a federal regulator. A lower CFPB complaint rate still means the institution generates fewer visible problems, but the absolute numbers understate the full picture.