What may be the world's largest complaint department went live today.

At a press conference Thursday morning in Des Moines, Iowa, Richard Cordray, director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, announced that its database of 90,000 searchable complaints on financial products and services is now available for public use.

The launch expands the Consumer Complaint Database from approximately 19,000 credit card complaints with thousands of complaints on mortgages, student loans, bank accounts and services, other consumer loans, and credit cards. It also includes product sub-categories. For example, for mortgages it includes reverse mortgages, conventional fixed mortgages, conventional adjustable mortgages, and home equity loans.

The database allows the public to see what consumers complained about and why, as well as how and when the company in question responds. It offers more than one million data points, covering approximately 450 companies.

The database also includes information about the actions taken on a complaint by a company, whether the response was timely, and whether the consumer disputed the company's response. A consumer's identity and other personal information is not included in the data.

Users can track, sort, search, and download information. The data is also available via API (application programming interface), which allows developers to build applications, conduct analyses, and perform research. The data can also be embedded on other websites and shared through social media. More information about the data and an interactive example of what can be done with it, is available here.

The live database updates daily and as the Bureau handles more complaints, more will be added. For example, credit reporting complaints, which the CFPB recently began to accept, will be included in the database in the near future. A link to the Consumer Complaint Database policy statement extending the database to other consumer financial products and services is available here.

Complaints are listed in the database only after the company responds to the complaint or after they have had the complaint for 15 days, whichever comes first. While the allegations in the complaint are not verified, a commercial relationship between the consumer and the company is substantiated before a complaint is added to the database.

Companies can categorize their response to a complaint in a number of ways, including:

Monetary relief. The steps taken by the company in response to the complaint resulted or will result in measurable and verifiable monetary relief to the consumer.

Closed with non-monetary relief. The result was not monetary relief, but may have addressed some or all of the consumer's complaint involving non-monetary requests.

Closed with explanation. The result included an explanation that was tailored to the individual consumer's complaint. This category would be used if the explanation substantively meets the consumer's desired resolution or explains why no further action will be taken.

Closed. The company closed the complaint without relief or explanation.

Consumers are given the option to review and dispute company responses. The Bureau then reviews that feedback. The CFPB uses this along with other information, such as the timeliness of the company's response, in a variety of ways, for example, to help prioritize complaints for investigation.

The decision to release “not verified” compliant data was criticized by, among others, Richard Hunt, president and CEO of the Consumer Bankers Association, who said the CFPB, by “encouraging the public to do its own homework,” took a "serious step in the wrong direction.”

“This approach is unnecessary, misleading and ultimately harmful to consumers,” he said. “A better service to consumers would have allowed for collaboration between the CFPB and financial institutions to determine if a complaint is indeed valid, prior to publication.”

The CFPB this week also published, online, a report containing aggregate data and analysis of all the 130,000 complaints it has received up to March 1, 2013. This number is larger than the 90,000 complaints in the public database because it includes complaints that have been referred to other regulatory agencies, found to be incomplete, are still being confirmed by the company, or are pending with the consumer or the CFPB. The report can be found here.

To file a complaint, consumers can:

File online at www.consumerfinance.gov/Complaint

Call toll-free, 1-855-411-CFPB (2372)

Fax the CFPB at (855) 237-2392

Mail a letter to: Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, P.O. Box 4503, Iowa City, Iowa 52244