CFPB, Federal Agencies, State Agencies, and Attorneys General
Without elaborating on its authority for doing so, the Department of Education recently announced the extension, through January 31, 2021, of certain pandemic-related benefits for federal student loan borrowers.
In particular, the administrative forbearance period, the 0% interest rate (pause in interest accrual), and the suspension of administrative wage garnishment and other collection activity will…
The CFPB has issued its final Advisory Opinions Policy, which allows stakeholders to request interpretive guidance “to resolve regulatory uncertainty.” While advisory opinions (AO) may address uncertainty in both statutes and regulations, the Bureau states in the Policy that it “will focus primarily on clarifying ambiguities in its regulations.” The Policy was accompanied by the…
The CFPB Private Education Loan Ombudsman has issued an annual report containing an analysis of approximately 5,000 federal student loan complaints, 1,900 private student loan complaints, and 1,700 debt collection complaints related to private or federal student loans submitted by consumers between September 1, 2019 and August 31, 2020. The report notes that total student…
Last week, the New Jersey Department of Banking and Insurance (DOBI) announced that it was designating Raghu Kakumanu as the state’s Student Loan Ombudsman. The DOBI opted to fill the role internally, as Kakumanu currently leads the Office of Consumer Finance—the same unit through which student loan inquiries and complaints will be processed.
Kakumanu is…
California Governor Gavin Newsom has signed into law the Student Borrower Bill of Rights, AB 376, as part of a package of consumer protection legislation. He simultaneously signed AB 1864, which creates the Department of Financial Protection and Innovation (DFPI) and the California Consumer Financial Protection Law, and SB 908, which requires…
It appears that the final chapter of the ITT Educational Services, Inc. (“ITT”) story was written last week with the CFPB’s announcement that it entered into a stipulated settlement with PEAKS Trust 2009-1 (“PEAKS”), a special purpose entity created in 2009 to purchase, own, and manage certain private student loans with students enrolled at ITT.…
Earlier this month, the California legislature passed three bills that will significantly impact consumer financial service providers in the state. AB-1864 creates the Department of Financial Protection and Innovation (DFPI), widely named a “mini-CFPB” because of its broad jurisdiction and sweeping new authorities that closely resemble those of the CFPB. The two other major bills…
At the end of last week, the Department of Education announced that Education Secretary Betsy DeVos has directed Federal Student Aid (FSA) to extend until December 31, 2020 the relief that was provided to federal student loan borrowers by the CARES Act. The CARES Act suspended loan payments on federal student loans and temporarily reduced…
On August 8, 2020, President Trump signed four executive orders that are designed to provide additional COVID-19 relief as talks on Capitol Hill collapsed on August 7 between White House negotiators and Democratic leaders over a fifth coronavirus stimulus package. One of those actions, which is directed to the Secretary of Education in the form…
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit ruled last week in Commonwealth of Pennsylvania v. Navient Corp. that the PA Attorney General could bring a parallel enforcement action against Navient, a servicer of federal student loans, under the Consumer Financial Protection Act (CFPA) even though the CFPB had previously filed a lawsuit against…
