A key mission of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is to make the financial products and services available to citizens more transparent. The Consumer Complaint Database – created by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), the first U.S. 21st-century consumer agency, allows consumers (and anonymous whistleblowers) to directly submit, view, download and visualize complaints.

The Consumer Complaint Database launched on June 2013, following the formation of the CFPB in July 2011, which continues to oversee site management. The CFPB was founded as a result of the Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, which passed in response to the Late-2000s recession and financial crisis. The bureau began operation on July 21, 2011. Congress established the CFPB to protect consumers by carrying out federal consumer financial laws. The CFPB seeks to ensure that consumers get the information they need to make the financial decisions they believe are best for themselves and their families, that prices are clear up front, that risks are visible and that nothing is buried in fine print. The agency has the power to write rules, supervise companies, and enforce federal consumer financial protection laws; restrict unfair, deceptive, or abusive acts or practices; take consumer complaints; promote financial education; research consumer behavior; monitor financial markets for new risks to consumers; and enforce laws that outlaw discrimination and other unfair treatment in consumer finance.