Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

Larger financial institutions receive lion's share of complaints, study finds

Big bad banks

In the wake of the housing crisis of the late 2000s, a host of fraud and misconduct charges against big banks alleging everything from illegal manipulation of financial markets to the latest scandal involving customers being charged fees for accounts they never opened, and savings rates returning virtually nothing to depositors, it's little surprise that consumer satisfaction is at an all-time low.

In the last five years, according to a study released last week by the consumer research site ValuePenguin, San Diego residents have lodged 2379 complaints with the federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, most of them related to mortgages.

Sponsored
Sponsored

That number is lower than other areas in the state, which as a whole opened nearly 42,000 cases against banks during that time. Of those, 23 percent were disputed — that is, the consumer ultimately wound up dissatisfied with the resolution offered by the bank.

Most often, customers unhappy with their bank wind up with no choice but to accept the bank's judgment.

"Banks have included forced arbitration clauses to prevent their customers from joining together to sue them," writes Andrea Luquetta-Kern, director of policy and research at the California Reinvestment Coalition. "However, the good news is that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is proposing rules that will likely eliminate bank's ability to use arbitration clauses with their customers."

A proposal to this effect was released for public comment in May, though it's been in the planning stages since late 2015 and no date for easing of arbitration requirements has been set.

Meanwhile, banks are not tied to the same restrictions when it comes to fighting sanctions imposed by regulators, which experts say may make regulatory bodies reluctant to issue negative reports.

"Regulators are cautious when writing up bigger banks and citing violations. They know once they issue their exit memorandum and citations for violation of regulations, policy and procedures ... they could be sued, challenged by official filing of complaint plus objection to findings," said financial advising firm Aegis FinServ Corp's president Jim Singleton, also in the ValuePenguin report.

San Diego banks receiving the most complaints were fairly well-aligned with the group's statewide and national findings. Bank of America had the highest incidence of bureau reports (and more than a quarter of the statewide total), followed by Wells Fargo, JP Morgan Chase, Citibank, and U.S. Bank.

The latest copy of the Reader

Please enjoy this clickable Reader flipbook. Linked text and ads are flash-highlighted in blue for your convenience. To enhance your viewing, please open full screen mode by clicking the icon on the far right of the black flipbook toolbar.

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Wild Wild Wets, Todo Mundo, Creepy Creeps, Laura Cantrell, Graham Nancarrow

Rock, Latin reggae, and country music in Little Italy, Oceanside, Carlsbad, Harbor Island

In the wake of the housing crisis of the late 2000s, a host of fraud and misconduct charges against big banks alleging everything from illegal manipulation of financial markets to the latest scandal involving customers being charged fees for accounts they never opened, and savings rates returning virtually nothing to depositors, it's little surprise that consumer satisfaction is at an all-time low.

In the last five years, according to a study released last week by the consumer research site ValuePenguin, San Diego residents have lodged 2379 complaints with the federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, most of them related to mortgages.

Sponsored
Sponsored

That number is lower than other areas in the state, which as a whole opened nearly 42,000 cases against banks during that time. Of those, 23 percent were disputed — that is, the consumer ultimately wound up dissatisfied with the resolution offered by the bank.

Most often, customers unhappy with their bank wind up with no choice but to accept the bank's judgment.

"Banks have included forced arbitration clauses to prevent their customers from joining together to sue them," writes Andrea Luquetta-Kern, director of policy and research at the California Reinvestment Coalition. "However, the good news is that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is proposing rules that will likely eliminate bank's ability to use arbitration clauses with their customers."

A proposal to this effect was released for public comment in May, though it's been in the planning stages since late 2015 and no date for easing of arbitration requirements has been set.

Meanwhile, banks are not tied to the same restrictions when it comes to fighting sanctions imposed by regulators, which experts say may make regulatory bodies reluctant to issue negative reports.

"Regulators are cautious when writing up bigger banks and citing violations. They know once they issue their exit memorandum and citations for violation of regulations, policy and procedures ... they could be sued, challenged by official filing of complaint plus objection to findings," said financial advising firm Aegis FinServ Corp's president Jim Singleton, also in the ValuePenguin report.

San Diego banks receiving the most complaints were fairly well-aligned with the group's statewide and national findings. Bank of America had the highest incidence of bureau reports (and more than a quarter of the statewide total), followed by Wells Fargo, JP Morgan Chase, Citibank, and U.S. Bank.

Comments
Sponsored

The latest copy of the Reader

Please enjoy this clickable Reader flipbook. Linked text and ads are flash-highlighted in blue for your convenience. To enhance your viewing, please open full screen mode by clicking the icon on the far right of the black flipbook toolbar.

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Two poems by Marvin Bell

“To Dorothy” and “The Self and the Mulberry”
Next Article

Todd Gloria gets cash from McDonald's franchise owners

Phil's BBQ owner for Larry Turner
Comments
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

This Week’s Reader This Week’s Reader