Five industry organizations banded together this week to push back against the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s new proposal to post anonymous complaints from the public about financial services companies online.

The groups situated near Capitol Hill — including the Financial Services Roundtable, the American Bankers Association, the Consumer Bankers Association, The Clearing House and the U. S. Chamber of Commerce — jointly declared in a letter to the CFPB this week that this proposal would have significant ramifications that require a substantial period of time to analyze and consider.

“The proposal raises many serious legal and practical issues, and 30 days is simply not enough time for us and our members to analyze and respond to the proposal. The associations request that the bureau extend the comment period to not less than 90 days,” the group wrote.

“The associations encourage the CFPB to ensure that the interests of all stakeholders are considered in this matter,” they continued.

As SubPrime Auto Finance News highlighted in a report here, the CFPB proposal would publically disclose complaint data regarding consumer financial products and services from its Consumer Complaint Database.

The groups went on to state in their letter to CFPB director Richard Cordray that the policy would permit the complaints to be anonymously posted and currently are not guaranteed to be vetted by the CFPB for accuracy or legitimacy.

The organizations went on to say that due to privacy laws and customer confidentiality requirements, financial service companies that have complaints filed against them would not be able to verify the complainant’s information or connection to its business.

The associations went on to stress that their request for an extension of analysis time is based on two considerations. First, they said a longer comment period is consistent with the standards that other federal agencies must follow.

The groups pointed out that executive order No. 13563, dated Jan. 18, 2011, states that agencies are expected to promote public participation by affording “at least 60 days” for public comment.

“Although the bureau is not legally bound by this executive order, we encourage the bureau to follow the good government standards that other agencies follow, especially since there is no statutory deadline or other reason to apply a different standard,” the organizations wrote while mentioning the CFPB allowed 60 days to formulate comments back in 2010 when the bureau first considered implementation of its public database.

Next, the associations noted the bureau is still studying two vital operational elements of its proposal and “the public should have the opportunity to provide input on all elements of the proposal as a unified whole rather than piecemeal.”

The groups indicated the bureau is conducting a study of its ability to protect the privacy of consumers who consent to have their narratives published.

“The bureau’s proposal states that it ‘is currently conducting a study to further verify that [its] proposed scrubbing standard and methodology will sufficiently address concerns related to the FOIA, the Privacy Act, the Dodd-Frank Act, and the bureau’s confidentiality regulations,’” the groups said.

“The bureau is also ‘conducting research and user testing’ relating to the design, wording, location and timing of consumer consent to publication,” they continued. “We urge the CFPB to complete these studies and afford the public not less than 60 days to provide input on the entire record including the study results.”