Submit a FOIA or Privacy Act request
The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) enables you, as a member of the public, to request documents from the government.
How to reach us
To receive the quickest response, please contact the CFPB’s FOIA team by email.
The FOIA team currently has limited access to U.S. mail and overnight mail services and is no longer accepting fax communications. Limited access means that our responses to mail inquiries may be delayed.
If you submitted a FOIA request or appeal to the CFPB by U.S. mail or overnight mail services and have not received an acknowledgment by the CFPB, we recommend resubmitting or following up by email to confirm receipt.
FOIA requests
To submit your FOIA request directly to our case management system, please access our National FOIA Portal page
To submit your own FOIA request, you can email or mail a letter to the contact information provided below. If you’d like to write a letter, we have a sample letter for you to use.
Before making a request, first see if the information is already publicly available. You can find a lot of useful information and previously released information at the CFPB's FOIA Reading Room https://www.consumerfinance.gov/foia-requests/foia-electronic-reading-room/ and you can also search across the government for information at www.foia.gov.
If the information you want is not publicly available, you can submit a FOIA request.
Privacy Act requests
To submit your Privacy Act request directly to our case management system, please register an account with the CFPB’s Privacy Act Portal.
To utilize fillable templates to submit your Privacy Act request please submit using one of the following links: Request for individual access to record or Consent for disclosure of records.
If you have a question about consumer complaint data, visit our public Consumer Complaint Database. The Web-based database allows you to filter data based on specific search criteria, or aggregate data in various ways, such as by date received, complaint type, company, company response, ZIP code, or state.
When we take an enforcement action against an entity or person we believe has violated the law, we will post court documents and other related public materials.
Write your own letter
When writing your own letter, please include, at a minimum, the information below. Our sample letter can provide more guidance.
A request should include:
- Your contact information (full name, address, phone number, and email address).
- As many details as possible about the information you’re seeking from the CFPB (for example “Consumer complaints received between Jan. 1, 2013, and the present that were related to overdraft charges”).
- Type of requester. For example: “for commercial purposes,” “news media,” “non-commercial scientific institution,” “educational institution,” or “other.”
- Indicate whether you are willing to pay fees for searching, reviewing, and/or duplicating records. You may request that fees be waived because the request is not commercial and it will significantly contribute to public understanding of the operations or activities of the government; please make sure you include a waiver justification for us to consider.