June 19, 2012 - The US Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has launched a public online database of complaints against credit card companies.

The beta site catalogues complaints about card issuers sent to the new CFPB and can be searched by fields such as institution, ZIP code, type of complaint and its outcome. No personally-identifiable information, such as names and card numbers, are shown.

The CFPB says that it hopes to extend the database to cover other financial products under its remit such as mortgages and loans as well as add more data fields and tools in the future.

The site - opposed by the industry - is the result of Dodd-Frank, which created the CFPB and gave it the authority to make public information about the markets for consumer financial products and services.

Richard Cordray, director, CFPB, says: "Each and every time we hear from American consumers about their troublesome transactions with financial products, it gives us important insight. The information helps us and it should be available to help others too. By making our data publicly available, initially in the area of credit cards, we hope to improve the transparency and efficiency of this essential consumer market."