'People are hurting, and they feel like they have absolutely no power to hold anyone accountable for wrongs done to them,' said Adam Tamburelli, a consumer attorney at the law firm of Sullivan, Krieger, Truong, Spagnola & Klausner, in a comment submitted to the agency. Meanwhile, consumer advocates, academics and plaintiffs lawyers strongly argued the other side of the issue, saying banks' common use of binding arbitration clauses restricts consumers from having their day in court. Some participating in the 29-group letter also submitted their own letters on top of other separate industry groups that weighed in too. Yet that was just one of the nearly 13,000 comment letters submitted to the bureau, of which just over 4,000 are considered discrete comments. (Other groups signing the letter included the Consumers Bankers Association, the Financial Services Roundtable and the Independent Community Bankers of America.) 'Even if the bureau were to identify concerns with the arbitration system, replacing arbitration with the broken class action system would not improve consumer welfare,' the letter said. The joint trade group letter said if the plan forces their members 'to bear the massive expenses associated with class action litigation,' they will no longer be able to provide arbitration as an option for consumers. But banks, credit unions and others argue the costs associated with that change will force financial institutions to go further than the bureau's proposal and abandon arbitration altogether. The CFPB's controversial plan, released in May, would remove banks' ability to stop consumers from forming or joining class actions through mandatory arbitration agreements. 'If the bureau will not go back to the drawing board, we respectfully encourage the bureau to consider adopting in any final rule a more tailored approach to regulating arbitration agreements that preserves consumers' access to arbitration.' Chamber of Commerce, said in a joint letter dated Aug. 'We respectfully request that the bureau withdraw the proposal because it would have the practical effect of eliminating the availability of low-cost, efficient, and fair arbitration programs for consumers,' 29 state and national industry groups, including the American Bankers Association and the U.S. The industry resoundingly wants the CFPB to scrap the plan and start over, saying the proposal will force companies to end arbitration programs altogether and therefore leave consumers with fewer options. If there was any doubt banks and other financial institutions abhor the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's arbitration proposal, comment letters to the agency have put that positively to rest. Lower Case Switcher: Switch between lower case and upper case Lower Case Switcher is a simple, but very useful utility that allows you to correct UPPER and lower case typos, that can occur if you accidentally left the Caps Lock button turned on. Have the practical effect of eliminating the availability of low-cost, efficient, and fair arbitration programs for consumers,' 29 state and national.