The federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is asking the public to suggest ways customers can successfully demand “better customer service” from big banks.
“In today’s Request for Information, the CFPB seeks data about, and consumer experiences with, the obstacles that may prevent people from receiving high standards of customer service and high-quality human interactions with their banks or credit unions,” the agency wrote in a public statement.
CFPB Director Rohit Chopra announced the Request for Information at a public event in Montana.
“Customers of large banks should not have to run through an obstacle course to get a straight answer about their account,” Chopra said, according to a news release issued by the agency. “We are taking steps to ensure the legally enshrined right to obtain basic customer service.”
The requirement that banks and credit unions with more than $10 billion in assets respond to consumer requests within certain time limit was included in the 2010 Consumer Financial Protection Act, according to the agency, but has not yet been enforced.
More recently, the agency stated in the announcement, large financial institutions are moving “toward algorithmic banking and away from relationship banking. Today’s initiative is part of a broader effort to restore relationship banking in an era of consolidation and digitization.”
The lack of personal interaction with human beings has “deprived some consumers of customized advice, responsiveness, and care,” the agency stated. “Customers report a struggle to obtain basic information and poor customer service, including that it takes too long to get problems solved, that they have to repeat information to multiple people, and that employees aren’t knowledgeable about their situation.”
Banking regulators already have been focusing on artificial intelligence far more sophisticated than the software call centers rely upon. The onus, top regulators recently said, is on banks to comply with rules even if they don’t specifically cite the use of AI.
Read more: Bank Regulators Warn That Traditional Rules Also Apply to AI
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