This section of the FEDERAL REGISTER

contains notices to the public of the proposed

issuance of rules and regulations. The

purpose of these notices is to give interested

persons an opportunity to participate in the

rule making prior to the adoption of the final

rules.

Proposed Rules Federal Register

37616 

Vol. 77, No. 121 

Friday, June 22, 2012 

1 12 U.S.C. 5511(b)(1) & (5). 

2The Bureau receives consumer complaints 

under the terms of Title X of the Dodd-Frank Wall 

Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. 

BUREAU OF CONSUMER FINANCIAL 

PROTECTION 

12 CFR Chapter X 

[Docket No. CFPB–2012–0023] 

Disclosure of Consumer Complaint 

Data 

AGENCY: Bureau of Consumer Financial 

Protection. 

ACTION: Notice of proposed policy 

statement. 

SUMMARY: The Bureau of Consumer 

Financial Protection (the ‘‘Bureau’’) is 

requesting comment on a proposed 

policy statement regarding the Bureau’s 

disclosure of data from consumer 

complaints about financial products and 

services other than credit cards. 

Concurrent with the present notice, the 

Bureau is separately finalizing a Policy 

Statement (the ‘‘Policy Statement’’) 

describing its plans to disclose 

consumer credit card complaint data. 

The present notice (the ‘‘Concurrent 

Notice’’) describes the Bureau’s plan to 

duplicate the data disclosure practices 

described in the Policy Statement for 

consumer complaints about other 

consumer financial services products 

and services within the Bureau’s 

jurisdiction. 

DATES: Comments in response to the 

Concurrent Notice are due on or before 

July 19, 2012. 

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments 

in response to the Concurrent Notice, 

identified by Docket No. CFPB–2012– 

0023, by any of the following methods: 

• Electronic: http:// 

www.regulations.gov. Follow the 

instructions for submitting comments. 

• Mail/Hand Delivery/Courier: 

Monica Jackson, Office of the Executive 

Secretary, Consumer Financial 

Protection Bureau, 1700 G Street NW., 

Washington, DC 20552. 

Instructions: The Bureau encourages 

the early submission of information and 

other comments. Because paper mail in 

the Washington, DC area and at the 

Bureau is subject to delay, commenters 

are encouraged to submit comments 

electronically. In general, all 

submissions received will be posted 

without change to http:// 

www.regulations.gov. In addition, 

submissions will be available for public 

inspection and copying at 1700 G Street 

NW., Washington, DC 20552, on official 

business days between the hours of 

10 a.m. and 5 p.m. Eastern Time. You 

can make an appointment to inspect the 

documents by telephoning (202) 435– 

7275. 

All submissions, including 

attachments and other supporting 

materials, will become part of the public 

record and will be subject to public 

disclosure. Do not include sensitive 

personal information, such as account 

numbers or Social Security numbers. 

Comments will not be edited to remove 

any identifying or contact information, 

such as name and address information, 

email addresses, or telephone numbers. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Scott Pluta, Office of Consumer 

Response, Bureau of Consumer 

Financial Protection, at (202) 435–7306; 

or Will Wade-Gery, Division of 

Research, Markets and Regulations, 

Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, 

at (202) 435–7700. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

I. Background 

A. Credit Card Policy Statement 

On December 8, 2011, the Bureau of 

Consumer Financial Protection (the 

‘‘Bureau’’) published in the Federal 

Register a proposed policy statement 

describing its plans to disclose data 

about the credit card complaints that 

consumers submit to the Bureau. After 

receiving and considering a number of 

comments, the Bureau has now 

finalized its plans for credit card 

complaint disclosure. To provide 

guidance to the public, including 

industry participants, those credit cardspecific plans are being published in 

final form (the ‘‘Policy Statement’’) at 

the same time as this Concurrent Notice. 

As described in the Policy Statement, 

the Bureau will disclose data about 

credit card complaints in two ways. 

First, the Bureau will issue its own 

periodic reports about credit card 

complaint data. Second, the Bureau will 

provide public access to an electronic 

database (the ‘‘public database’’) 

containing certain fields for each unique 

credit card complaint. Together these 

disclosures are intended to help provide 

consumers and others with ‘‘timely and 

understandable information to make 

responsible decisions about financial 

transactions’’ and to enhance the credit 

card market’s ability to ‘‘operate 

transparently and efficiently.’’ 1 It is this 

two-part system that the present 

Concurrent Notice proposes to duplicate 

for other consumer complaints. 

B. Complaint System 

The Bureau’s Office of Consumer 

Response (‘‘Consumer Response’’) 

launched a system for accepting and 

processing credit card complaints in 

July 2011.2 In December 2011, 

Consumer Response expanded this 

system (the ‘‘Complaint System’’) to 

include mortgages. This year, Consumer 

Response has further expanded the 

Complaint System to cover certain other 

consumer loans as well as bank 

products such as checking and savings 

accounts, check cashing services, and 

remittance services. The Bureau expects 

that the Complaint System, before the 

end of 2012, will accept and handle 

complaints about all consumer financial 

products and services within the 

Bureau’s jurisdiction. 

Consumers submit complaints to 

Consumer Response in several ways, 

including via the Bureau’s Web site, 

http://www.consumerfinance.gov. The 

different methods of submission do not 

vary by the product or service identified 

in a complaint. Thus, the online intake 

process is common across complaints 

addressed to different products, with 

consumers asked to complete an 

effectively identical series of data fields, 

including contact information, the name 

of the financial services company 

involved, and the type of issue 

involved. The process for handling the 

complaints that are received is also 

common across complaints directed to 

different products and services. 

Complaints are authenticated and 

forwarded to the company involved. 

Companies may then respond in detail, 

and are instructed to categorize the 

nature of their response pursuant to 

detailed guidance that Consumer 

Response provides institutions 

participating in the Complaint System. 

Consumers may dispute the adequacy of 


wreier-aviles on DSK7SPTVN1PROD with PROPOSALS
Federal Register / Vol. 77, No. 121 / Friday, June 22, 2012 / Proposed Rules 37617 

3Complaints may also be subject to further 

investigation by Consumer Response or follow-up 

by other parts of the Bureau. The Complaint System 

is described in more detail in a number of Bureau 

reports, including the Consumer Response Annual 

Report for 2011 (March 31, 2012) at http:// 

files.consumerfinance.gov/f/ 

201204_cfpb_ConsumerResponseAnnualReport.pdf, 

the Semi-Annual Report of the Consumer Financial 

Protection Bureau (January 30, 2012) at http:// 

www.consumerfinance.gov/reports/semi-annualreport-of-the-consumer-financial-protectionbureau/, and the Consumer Response Interim 

Report on CFPB’s Credit Card Complaint Data 

(November 30, 2011) at http:// 

www.consumerfinance.gov/reports/consumerresponse-interim-report-on-cfpbs-credit-cardcomplaint-data. 

4 In comments made in response to the proposed 

credit card complaint data disclosure policy 

statement, several consumer and privacy groups 

supported expanding the policy to cover other 

products as well. 

5Several of the Bureau’s published reports on 

complaints already include data on mortgagerelated complaints. 

6Technically, this field already exists in the 

public database. At this point, however, it does not 

give reviewers meaningful information because all 

the complaints in the public database concern a 

single product, namely credit cards. 

7Although trade groups opposed the current 

system, several noted that their comments applied 

generally to the public disclosure of any consumer 

complaint data. In fact, the Bureau received 

comments from several mortgage trade associations, 

which noted the Bureau’s indication that credit 

card complaint disclosures might provide a model 

for subsequent disclosure of complaint data about 

other products. 

a company’s response and can log on to 

the Complaint System to review the 

progress of their complaints through the 

system.3 These procedures do not vary 

by the product or service that is the 

subject of a complaint. 

II. Proposed Extension of Policy 

Statement To Apply to Other Complaint 

Data 

As a general matter, the Bureau 

believes that the basic structure of the 

credit card complaint data disclosure 

policy, including the public database, 

can appropriately be duplicated for 

other consumer products and services in 

addition to credit cards.4 As a result, the 

Bureau is proposing that the two-part 

complaint data disclosure system 

described in the Policy Statement be 

extended to cover complaint data about 

these other products and services. 

The same purposes underlying the 

credit card complaint data Policy 

Statement apply to its extension to 

complaint data about other products. 

The authority to disclose the data in the 

public database and in the Bureau’s own 

reporting is also the same. The Bureau’s 

plans to publish its own reports on 

complaint data apply, without any 

needed adjustment, across all products 

and services.5 In addition, as discussed 

above, the Complaint System is 

effectively identical across products, 

which means that the same fields can be 

disclosed in the public database without 

regard to the precise product or service 

that is the subject of a given complaint. 

The general issues raised by narrative 

field disclosure are also common across 

products or services. The same privacy 

concerns that led the Bureau to 

withhold credit card complaint 

narratives pending further analysis exist 

for complaint narratives involving other 

products and services. Thus, the only 

public database field that the Bureau 

plans to develop further in connection 

with extending its disclosure policy to 

complaints about other products and 

services would be the field to identify 

the type of product or service involved.6

With that one development, the existing 

policy can be extended to complaint 

data about other products and services. 

As a result, the Bureau proposes to 

duplicate the existing credit card 

complaint data disclosure system— 

which is described in detail in the 

Policy Statement—for all other 

consumer financial products and 

services within the Bureau’s 

jurisdiction. This Concurrent Notice, 

therefore, does not provide any separate 

text for a proposed policy statement to 

apply to complaint data across all 

products or services. 

Comments received in connection 

with finalizing the Policy Statement will 

be considered with respect to the 

application of the Policy Statement to 

other products. The Bureau has 

carefully considered all comments that 

would apply to disclosure of complaint 

information generally, and has 

addressed them in the final Policy 

Statement.7 The Bureau therefore seeks 

comments that are specific to the 

proposed extension of the policy for one 

or more new product areas. 

Finally, the Bureau notes that any 

extension of the disclosure system for 

other complaint data would not be 

finalized until the Bureau is able to 

consider whatever adjustments might be 

necessary in light of operational 

experience and to address comments 

received in response to this Concurrent 

Notice. In addition, any such extension 

might be phased in at different times for 

different products. 

Authority: 12 U.S.C. 5492(a), 

5493(b)(3)(C), 5496(c)(4), 5511(b)(1), (5), 

5512(c)(3)(B). 

Dated: June 15, 2012. 

Richard Cordray, 

Director, Bureau of Consumer Financial 

Protection. 

[FR Doc. 2012–15161 Filed 6–21–12; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 4810–AM–P 

DEPARTMENT OF LABOR 

Occupational Safety and Health 

Administration 

29 CFR parts 1910, 1915, 1917, 1918, 

and 1926 

[Docket No. OSHA–2011–0184] 

RIN 1218–AC65 

Updating OSHA Standards Based on 

National Consensus Standards; Head 

Protection 

AGENCY: Occupational Safety and Health 

Administration (OSHA), Department of 

Labor. 

ACTION: Notice of proposed rulemaking; 

request for comments. 

SUMMARY: OSHA is proposing to revise 

the personal protective equipment (PPE) 

sections of its general industry, shipyard 

employment, longshoring, and marine 

terminals standards regarding 

requirements for head protection. OSHA 

is updating the references in its 

standards to recognize the 2009 edition 

of the American National Standard for 

Industrial Head Protection, and is 

deleting the 1986 edition of that 

national consensus standard because it 

is out of date. OSHA also is including 

the construction industry in this 

rulemaking to ensure consistency 

among the Agency’s standards. OSHA is 

publishing a direct final rule in today’s 

Federal Register taking this same 

action. 

DATES: Submit comments to this 

proposal (including comments to the 

information-collection (paperwork) 

determination described under the 

section titled Procedural 

Determinations), hearing requests, and 

other information by July 23, 2012. All 

submissions must bear a postmark or 

provide other evidence of the 

submission date. (The following section 

titled ADDRESSES describes methods 

available for making submissions.) 

ADDRESSES: Submit comments, hearing 

requests, and other information as 

follows: 

• Electronic. Submit comments 

electronically to http:// 

www.regulations.gov, which is the 

Federal eRulemaking Portal. Follow the 

instructions online for submitting 

comments. 

• Facsimile. OSHA allows facsimile 

transmission of comments and hearing 

requests that are 10 pages or fewer in 

length (including attachments). Send 

these documents to the OSHA Docket 

Office at (202) 693–1648; OSHA does 

not require hard copies of these 

documents. Instead of transmitting 


wreier-aviles on DSK7SPTVN1PROD with PROPOSALS