"Consumers aren't left without any options just because of what's happening in Washington," said Katherine Bosken, North Carolina's Commissioner of Banks.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, a consumer watchdog agency created by Congress, is in a turbulent time.

This week, the Trump administration said in a court filing it intends to keep the CFPB, but make it more efficient.

This comes after Scott Bessent, the bureau's acting director, halted much of their activity.

Whatever happens, there is another option for people looking for help fighting big banks and lenders.

The North Carolina Office of the Commissioner of Banks receives consumer complaints and facilitates correspondence with companies it regulates, including 23 commercial banks and 580 mortgage lenders.

Consumers can file complaints through the Office of the Commissioner of Banks' website.

WRAL anchor/reporter Ashley Rowe spoke with North Carolina Commissioner of Banks Katherine Bosken about what you should know.

Bosken: That's a great question. I know we've all had a lot of focus and attention on what's going on at the federal level, but the state government is still here for the citizens of North Carolina.

My office will take and process consumer complaints regarding the industries that we supervise, which are primarily banks, trust companies, mortgage lenders and servicers, consumer finance lenders and a variety of other financial service products.

There's a couple of other state agencies in the state. Most notably, the Department of Justice runs the Consumer Protection Group.

I've been in contact with them. Since this has all happened, since the news has broken ... they will deal with quite a few complaints there as well.

So, consumers in North Carolina aren't left without any options just because of what's happening in Washington.

Bosken: Surprisingly, no.

I checked our complaint numbers and we are tracking with prior years. Typically, complaints will escalate when there is economic dislocation, and that hasn't started at this point.

That is not something that we're facing here in our state. We have had some complaints regarding issues with the hurricane arising out in western North Carolina, and we've tried to triage those and push them to the top.

We haven't seen an uptick in any specific type of complaints [and] it seems to be business as usual right now.

Bosken: We have a 100% response rate.

My office will respond to all complaints received within seven business days. We don't track the numbers in terms of consumers. We don't track the numbers in terms of their satisfaction for resolution.

Sometimes these issues will result in litigation, and at that point, we will step back from whatever the issue is.

Bosken: The General Assembly will set our state policy.

So, my main goal is to execute on the will of the General Assembly. Sometimes there will be issues that percolate through the complaints process, things that we may not be aware of directly.

Solar lending, for example, has become a hot topic lately. Extensive card fees and account fees has been an issue.

Another prime example is appraisal bias, which comes up from time to time, where home lending, home mortgage appraisals aren't coming in at expected levels.

We can look into the data to see, if that's a more prevalent situation or a prevalent concern.