Recent Decline in Mortgage Complaints

During the three months that ended on April 30, consumers submitted an average of 24,010 complaints per month against financial services companies.

Complaint activity has worsened compared to the previous three-month period, when there were an average of 23,508 complaints per month submitted.

Overall complaints have also risen from the same period last year, when the monthly average worked out to 22,229 complaints filed.

The metrics were reported by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in its Monthly Complaint Report.

Zeroing in on just mortgage complaints, the most-recent period’s monthly average was 4,587, slightly fewer than the 4,603 average previously reported for March.

But mortgage complaints have accelerated from a year earlier, when the average was 4,042.

That worked out to a 13 percent increase for mortgage complaints on a year-over-year basis versus the 8 percent rise for overall complaints.

During just April 2016, mortgage complaints totaled 4,347,
a 12 percent decline compared to March.

That was a bigger improvement than the 7 percent month-over-month drop for overall financial services complaints.

During the three months ended Feb. 29, 2016 — which allows 60 days for companies to respond — mortgage complaints averaged
around 415 at Wells Fargo & Co. The San Francisco-based organization is the biggest mortgage originator and servicer in the nation.

Mortgage complaints averaged roughly 320 per month at Bank of America Corp.

After that was Ocwen Financial Corp., where mortgage complaints averaged approximately 305 per month.

With a monthly average in the neighborhood of 275, Nationstar Mortgage landed in the next spot.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. followed with a monthly average of roughly 230.

Next was Citibank, N.A., which averaged around 105 mortgage complaints per month.