Key findings
- Complaints closed "with monetary relief" were 16,852 in 2022 and 26,125 in 2025 (+55%). Total complaints went from 800,245 to 5,442,962 (about 6.8 times).
- As a share of closed complaints, monetary relief fell from 2.11% to 0.48%.
- About half of that fall is mix: credit reporting, which rarely ends in money, became 88% of complaints. The other half is lower rates inside products.
- Inside products the drops are large: bank accounts 15.9% to 10.6%, money transfers & virtual currency 9.2% to 2.4%, debt collection 0.69% to 0.16%.
- We cannot say why. The data show what the company response was, not what changed.
When a consumer files a complaint with the CFPB, the company's response is recorded as one of a few outcomes. One is "Closed with monetary relief". It is the only outcome that says the company gave money back or credited the consumer. In earlier notes we showed that complaints exploded after 2023 and that credit reporting now makes up nearly 9 in 10. This investigation asks a narrower question: has the share of complaints that end in money fallen, and is that just because of credit reporting?
What We Measured
Rate = complaints closed with monetary relief ÷ closed complaints (we exclude "In progress"), per harmonised product family and year, 2015 to 2025. 2026 is left out of the trends because it is partial (to 2 October) and 11.5% of its complaints are still in progress. The CFPB labels outcomes; it does not publish the amount of money.
What the Data Shows
- More money outcomes, far fewer per complaint. 16,852 (2022), 20,355 (2023), 23,745 (2024), 26,125 (2025). Complaints grew faster: 800,245, 1,292,049, 2,734,268, 5,442,962. Indexed to 2022 = 100, complaints reached 680 and monetary outcomes 155.
Total CFPB complaints and complaints closed with monetary relief, 2022–2025, indexed to 2022 = 100. Source: CFPB Consumer Complaint Database; Kibbo Research analysis.
- The overall rate fell every year since 2015. 6.2% in 2015, 2.1% in 2022, 0.87% in 2024, 0.48% in 2025. Excluding credit reporting it was steady between 7.3% and 8.3% from 2015 to 2022, then fell to 6.2% (2024) and 4.0% (2025). Up to 2022, then, the overall fall was credit reporting's growing weight. After 2022 it is not only that.
Monetary relief rate (share of closed complaints), 2015–2025, all complaints vs. excluding credit reporting. Source: CFPB Consumer Complaint Database; Kibbo Research analysis.
- Decomposition. Between 2022 and 2025 the overall rate fell 1.63 percentage points. About 0.81 points come from lower rates inside product families and 0.82 from the shift in mix toward credit reporting. For 2024 to 2025 (−0.39 points) the split is 0.20 and 0.19. The split depends on the method used; we report it as "about half and half".
- Largest rate drops inside products, 2022 to 2025. Bank accounts 15.9% to 10.6%. Credit & prepaid cards 18.6% to 12.8%. Money transfers & virtual currency 9.2% to 2.4% (8.5% in 2024). Mortgage 2.9% to 1.7%. Debt collection 0.69% to 0.16%. Student loans 1.1% to 0.4%. Vehicle & consumer loans 2.5% to 2.1%.
Monetary relief rate by product family, 2022 vs. 2025, for the largest families outside credit reporting. Source: CFPB Consumer Complaint Database; Kibbo Research analysis.
- Credit reporting is close to zero. 0.09% in 2022 and 0.02% in 2025: 921 monetary outcomes among 4.8 million closed complaints.
- The drop is not a template effect. Restricting to original narratives (no template match), the same direction appears: debt collection 0.92% to 0.36%, bank accounts 16.0% to 11.4%, money transfers 9.9% to 4.4%, mortgage 3.2% to 1.8%. (Originals have a different denominator and are not directly comparable to the all-complaints figures.)
- It is not an unresolved-complaint artefact. Only 284 of the 5.4 million complaints received in 2025 are still in progress. Counting only 2025 complaints received before 1 July, the rate is 0.51% against 0.48% for the full year.
What We Cannot Say
- Why the rate fell. It could reflect different complaint types within a product, different company practices, different consumer goals or changes in how outcomes are classified. We tested none of these.
- That companies are paying less. The count of monetary outcomes rose. What fell is the share of complaints that end that way.
- Amounts. The data have no dollar values.
- That any complaint deserved relief. A complaint is an allegation; responses are self-reported by companies and not verified by the CFPB.
Method and Limits
- Source: CFPB Consumer Complaint Database, 2015 to 2 October 2026. Year totals reconcile with the official counts in all 12 years (2025: 5,442,962).
- Outcome field: "Company response to consumer". Monetary = "Closed with monetary relief". "Closed without relief" appears only in 2011 to 2012 and plays no role.
- Decomposition: within-family effect uses base-year shares and rate changes; mix effect uses end-year rates and share changes; the two sum exactly to the total change (checked). Other pairings would split the total differently.
- No company data used. Logged as Step 11 in our research log.
Related
How to Cite
Kibbo Research (2026). Complaints Grew Sevenfold, Money Back Grew 55%: What Happened to Monetary Relief in CFPB Complaints. getkibbo.com. https://www.getkibbo.com/investigations/cfpb-monetary-relief-decline
