The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau made it official this week. As of the reading stemming from its September update, the bureau now has handled more than 1 million consumer complaints.

"Since opening our doors in 2011, we have handled over 1 million complaints from consumers about their problems with financial products and services,” CFPB director Richard Cordray said in the press release distributed by the bureau announcing the new figure. “Not only have we achieved substantial relief for consumers, but hearing directly from consumers is fundamental to our mission.

“We can better protect all consumers because of what we learn from those who have submitted complaints and shared their experiences with us,” Cordray continued.

Some of the findings from the statistics being published in this month’s snapshot report include:

—Complaint volume: For August, the CFPB reported debt collection was the most-complained-about financial product or service. Of the 28,651 complaints the bureau handled in July, there were 9,746 complaints about debt collection.

The second most-complained-about consumer product was credit reporting, which accounted for 5,123 complaints. The third most-complained-about financial product or service was mortgages, accounting for 4,310 complaints.

—Product trends: In a month-to-month comparison, officials indicated complaints about debt collection submitted to the bureau rose 50 percent between July and August. While there were 6,488 debt collection complaints submitted to the bureau in July, the CFPB received 9,746 debt collection complaints during August.

—State information: The CFPB determined Maine, Nebraska and Idaho experienced the greatest year-to-year complaint volume decreases from June to August period versus the same time period 12 months before, with Maine down 36 percent, Nebraska down 19 percent, and Idaho down 15 percent.

—Most-complained-about companies: The top three companies that received the most complaints from April through June were credit reporting companies Equifax, Experian and TransUnion.

When the bureau opened its doors in July 2011, it began accepting credit card complaints submitted by consumers online, over the phone, and through the mail. Since then, the bureau has continually expanded its complaint handling to include a wide variety of financial products and services including mortgages, bank accounts, debt collection and more.

Officials reiterated that the now more than 1 million complaints handled by the CFPB has resulted in millions of dollars in monetary relief to consumers as well as non-monetary relief, such as cleaning up credit reports or correcting the terms of a loan.

Cordray emphasized how the CFPB will punish financial institutions when it finds wrongdoing. The director made the points again when he spoke before the U.S. Senate Banking Committee last week in a hearing recapping the recent actions taken against Wells Fargo not related to auto financing. Earlier this month, the CFPB fined the bank $100 million for what the regulator deemed to be “widespread illegal practice of secretly opening unauthorized deposit and credit card accounts.”

Spurred by sales targets and compensation incentives, the bureau said employees boosted sales figures by “covertly” opening accounts and funding them by transferring funds from consumers’ authorized accounts without their knowledge or consent, often racking up fees or other charges.

According to the bank’s own analysis, the CFPB found employees opened more than 2 million deposit and credit card accounts that may not have been authorized by consumers.

Officials said Wells Fargo will pay full restitution to all victims and a $100 million fine to the CFPB’s Civil Penalty Fund. The bank will also pay an additional $35 million penalty to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, and another $50 million to the city and county of Los Angeles.

“This action should serve notice to the entire industry,” Cordray told the Senate committee. “If sales targets and incentive compensation schemes are implemented in ways that threaten harm to consumers and lead to violations of the law, then banks and other financial companies will be held accountable.

“We have seen the risk that such programs pose to consumers across the entire financial sector — in debt collection, mortgage origination, credit card add-on products, overdraft products, and now in this action,” he continued. “Any such initiatives should be carefully monitored as a basic element in a company’s compliance program.”