Business Problem

Context

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) maintains a public database of consumer complaints filed against financial institutions. These complaints represent real consumer experiences with financial products and services and are a valuable signal for identifying patterns of consumer harm, company behavior, and regulatory risk.

The Problem

North Carolina consumers filing credit card complaints related to fees and interest represent a specific, high-value segment of the CFPB complaint database. Without structured analysis, this data sits as raw text — difficult to interpret, impossible to trend, and inaccessible to non-technical stakeholders.

Key questions that this project answers:

  1. Which companies generate the most complaints? — Helps prioritize regulatory attention and internal compliance review.
  2. What specific fee and interest issues are consumers reporting? — Distinguishes between fee disputes, interest overcharges, and unexpected rate increases.
  3. How are companies resolving complaints? — Measures whether consumers receive financial relief or only explanations.
  4. Are companies meeting CFPB response deadlines? — Assesses operational compliance.
  5. Are complaint volumes trending up or down over time? — Identifies whether the problem is growing or stabilizing.
  6. What language do consumers use to describe their problems? — Surfaces the most common friction themes from consumer narratives.

Why This Matters

For a data analyst in a financial services or regulatory context, the ability to transform raw complaint data into actionable KPIs and stakeholder-ready visualizations is a core competency. This project demonstrates:

  • KPI definition: Translating business questions into measurable metrics
  • Data governance: Cleaning, validating, and documenting a real-world dataset
  • SQL proficiency: Writing Athena-compatible queries for a cloud analytics pipeline
  • Dashboard design: Defining requirements for a QuickSight or BI tool dashboard
  • Stakeholder communication: Summarizing findings in non-technical language
  • AI validation: Critically evaluating AI-generated insights against actual data

Scope

  • Geography: North Carolina only
  • Product: Credit cards (general-purpose)
  • Issue category: Fees or interest
  • Time period: January 2024 – April 2026
  • Record count: 542 complaints