Analysis: Those bellyaching borrowers are mostly richer and older

WASHINGTON, Oct. 4 (UPI) -- Mortgage-related complaints handled by the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau more often originate from wealthy consumers than poor ones, a study found.

The Washington Post reported that the CFPB does not break down the income of those who complain about their lenders, but Deloitte, a consulting firm, analyzed the complaints based on the zip codes of those complaining, which was a proxy method of analyzing the complaints by wealth.

In linear fashion, the most complaints filed, 30 percent, came from households in the top 25 percent of income. The second largest percentage, 26 percent of the complaints, came from households in the second highest income quarter. Fewer complaints, 23 percent, originated from households in the third quarter of income levels, while 21 percent came from the bottom quarter among income levels, the Post reported Thursday.

The study also found that zip codes where more older residents live generated more complaints than zip codes where the median age was lower.

One banker said the complaining was a write-off, anyway.

"Any time you set up an 'olly olly oxen free' system, you're going to get every nutcase in the world calling those complaint lines. Almost all of them are going to be something that could be resolved by banks, or the nutcases. If we had an open line, we'd be flooded by every nutcase in the world. Everybody has a story, and everybody wants some attention," said Camden Fine, president of the Independent Community Bankers of America.