# Financial Complaint Monitor — CFPB, Summarized (`alaudinburki/cfpb-complaint-monitor`) Actor

A company's CFPB complaint profile: volume, top issues, and how complaints actually get resolved (the company\_response breakdown) — from the same free public database CFPB itself publishes. Type an approximate name; it's resolved to the exact filing name automatically.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/alaudinburki/cfpb-complaint-monitor.md
- **Developed by:** [alaudin burki](https://apify.com/alaudinburki) (community)
- **Categories:** Developer tools
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $3.00 / 1,000 results

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/actors/running/actors-in-store.md#pay-per-event

## What's an Apify Actor?

An Actor is a serverless cloud program that runs on the Apify platform. It has two run modes.
In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours,
and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store.
In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server.

Apify vocabulary and the platform model are defined once, in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md.

## How to integrate an Actor?

If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects.
You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready.

Do not guess an integration path. Every one of them is in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md: the Apify MCP server, Agent Skills with the Apify CLI, the JavaScript and Python clients, the REST API, and the account-free path for an agent with no human to sign in. It also carries the rule on stating cost before the first paid run.

For examples already wired to this Actor's own input schema, see the [API](#api) section below.

Each client library has reference documentation the quickstart does not restate: [JavaScript/TypeScript](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md) (`npm install apify-client`) and [Python](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md) (`pip install apify-client`).

# README

## Financial Complaint Monitor — CFPB, Summarized

CFPB's Consumer Complaint Database has 17.5 million+ complaints against
banks, lenders, credit bureaus, and fintechs — free, public, no key. The
raw data is a chore to search by hand, and the search itself has a real
gotcha: it needs the **exact legal name on file** ("EQUIFAX, INC.", not
"Equifax") or it silently returns nothing.

This actor resolves an approximate company name automatically (using
CFPB's own internal suggest endpoint — the same one their site uses), then
summarizes the result into the thing a buyer actually wants: **volume, top
issues, and how the company actually resolves complaints.**

### The product is the summary, not the raw list

A row per company, not a row per complaint:

```json
{
  "queriedAs": "Equifax",
  "resolvedCompanyName": "EQUIFAX, INC.",
  "windowDays": 90,
  "totalComplaintsOnFile": 493786,
  "totalComplaintsInWindow": 100,
  "timelyResponseRate": 100,
  "topIssues": "Incorrect information on your report (29); Investigation took more than 30 days (14)",
  "responseBreakdown": "Closed with explanation: 61; In progress: 22; Closed with non-monetary relief: 17"
}
```

`responseBreakdown` is the finding most buyers actually want: what
fraction of complaints get real relief versus a form-letter close.

### Quick start

```json
{ "companies": ["Equifax", "Wells Fargo"], "daysBack": 90 }
```

The default output is one comparable company profile per name. Start with
`totalComplaintsInWindow`, `topIssues`, and `responseBreakdown`; use
`resolvedCompanyName` to verify that CFPB matched the legal entity you intended.

### Typical uses

- **Fintech reputation monitoring** — track your own complaint volume and
  resolution outcomes over time.
- **Investor / insurer due diligence** — check a financial company's
  complaint profile before an investment or underwriting decision.
- **Competitive intelligence** — compare your complaint volume and top
  issues against a named competitor.
- **Class-action / legal research** — a spike in a specific issue category
  is a real signal worth investigating.

### Pricing

**$3.00 / 1,000 results** (`$0.003` per company profile).

### ⚠️ Read before you act

- **`totalComplaintsOnFile` is all-time**; `totalComplaintsInWindow` and
  the topic breakdown reflect only `daysBack`. Don't confuse the two —
  the all-time number is context, not what's summarized.
- **Company-name resolution takes the FIRST suggestion CFPB's own endpoint
  returns.** For an ambiguous name, verify `resolvedCompanyName` matches
  who you meant — a large financial group can have multiple similarly-named
  filing entities.
- **This is complaint volume, not confirmed wrongdoing.** A complaint is a
  consumer's account of what happened, not an adjudicated finding.

### FAQ

- **Do I need to know the exact company name?** No — type an approximate
  name ("Equifax") and it resolves to CFPB's exact filing name
  automatically, the same way typing into CFPB's own website works.
- **What if my company isn't found?** Either it's not in CFPB's data
  (CFPB only covers regulated financial products), or the name needs to be
  shorter/differently spelled — check the problems report for the exact reason.
- **How far back can I search?** Up to 5 years (`daysBack` up to 1825).

### Related actors

- **Recall Exposure Monitor** — the same "official complaint/incident
  database, summarized" pattern, for CPSC consumer product recalls.
- **Sanctions Screening** — another official-database company lookup, for
  OFAC/UN watchlists instead of consumer complaints.

# Actor input Schema

## `companies` (type: `array`):

Financial company names to look up, e.g. Equifax, Wells Fargo. An approximate name is fine — resolved automatically to CFPB's exact filing name.

## `daysBack` (type: `integer`):

How many days of complaints to include, up to 5 years.

## `maxComplaintsPerCompany` (type: `integer`):

How many individual complaints to pull per company for the summary (affects accuracy of the top-issues breakdown, not the totalComplaintsOnFile count).

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "companies": [
    "Equifax"
  ],
  "daysBack": 90,
  "maxComplaintsPerCompany": 100
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `results` (type: `string`):

One summarized row per company, ranked by complaint volume.

## `qualityReport` (type: `string`):

Companies queried, resolution rate, and problems.

# API

You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup.

## JavaScript example

```javascript
import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

// Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
// Replace the '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token
const client = new ApifyClient({
    token: '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>',
});

// Prepare Actor input
const input = {
    "companies": [
        "Equifax"
    ]
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("alaudinburki/cfpb-complaint-monitor").call(input);

// Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any)
console.log('Results from dataset');
console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`);
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
items.forEach((item) => {
    console.dir(item);
});

// 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs

```

## Python example

```python
from apify_client import ApifyClient

# Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
# Replace '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token.
client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_API_TOKEN>")

# Prepare the Actor input
run_input = { "companies": ["Equifax"] }

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("alaudinburki/cfpb-complaint-monitor").call(run_input=run_input)

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print(f"💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/{run.default_dataset_id}")
for item in client.dataset(run.default_dataset_id).iterate_items():
    print(item)

# 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{
  "companies": [
    "Equifax"
  ]
}' |
apify call alaudinburki/cfpb-complaint-monitor --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,alaudinburki/cfpb-complaint-monitor"
        }
    }
}
```

The hosted server signs you in with OAuth on first connect, so no API token belongs in this config. Clients without OAuth support can send an `Authorization: Bearer <APIFY_API_TOKEN>` header instead, using a token from API & Integrations in Apify Console (https://console.apify.com/settings/integrations).

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/mxMytgD422ZzYAqSi/builds/Q62mYb8U2htkmkzk7/openapi.json