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On December 22, 2021, New York State Senate Bill 2767A was signed into law. The Bill establishes the Private Student Loan Refinancing Task Force (the “Task Force”), which was charged with “study[ing] and analyz[ing] ways lending institutions that offer non-federal student loans to students of New York institutions of higher education can be incentivized and encouraged to create student loan refinance programs.”… Continue Reading

After reviewing the background of the current moratorium on federal student loan payments and the Biden Administration’s decision to grant loan forgiveness, we discuss two recent decisions that have paused the Administration’s ability to proceed with forgiveness.  We first analyze the Texas federal district court decision vacating the forgiveness program, including the court’s standing analysis and application of the “major questions doctrine.” … Continue Reading

Yesterday, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit granted a request to enjoin the Biden Administration’s federal student loan forgiveness program pending resolution of an appeal filed by state attorneys general of six states (Missouri, Arkansas, Nebraska, Iowa, Kansas, and South Carolina), whose challenge to the loan forgiveness plan had been dismissed in October for lack of Article III standing. … Continue Reading

On November 10, 2022, a federal district court in the Northern District of Texas entered judgment in favor of two plaintiffs on an Administrative Procedure Act (APA) claim seeking vacatur of the Biden administration’s plan to forgive approximately $400 billion in federal student loans under the HEROES Act of 2003. The court, citing a rarely used provision in Rule 65 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, converted the plaintiffs’ motion for a preliminary injunction into a motion for summary judgment over the Biden administration’s objection, and then entered a final ruling on the merits that will (along with the still-pending administrative stay entered by the Eighth Circuit) prohibit the Biden administration from moving forward with its loan forgiveness plan—at least unless and until the administration obtains a stay and/or reversal of the court’s judgment in the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, which it has already sought.… Continue Reading

The U.S. Department of Education recently announced final regulations, effective July 1, 2023, designed to expand and improve the major student loan discharge programs authorized by the Higher Education Act.  Among other things, the final regulations prohibit institutions that participate in the Federal Direct Loan program from requiring borrowers to sign mandatory pre-dispute arbitration agreements or class-action waivers that would be applicable to disputes about Direct Loans. … Continue Reading

On the evening of Friday, October 21, 2022, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit put a halt—albeit a potentially temporary one—to the Biden Administration’s federal student loan forgiveness program, which had been scheduled to result in loan cancellation for at least some student borrowers only two days later, on October 23.… Continue Reading

Last week, the CFPB released its eleventh annual report to Congress on college credit card agreements.  The annual report is mandated by the CARD Act.

The CARD Act requires mandatory reporting to the CFPB by card issuers on agreements with institutions of higher learning or certain affiliated organizations (such as alumni associations). … Continue Reading

On September 29, 2022, the Attorneys General of Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, and South Carolina filed a complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri against President Biden, Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona, and the U.S. Department of Education (4:22-cv-01040) seeking to halt implementation of the Biden Administration’s student loan relief plan announced on August 24, 2022.… Continue Reading

Last week, the CFPB issued a “Student Loan Servicing Special Edition” of Supervisory Highlights.  In this blog post, we highlight a stealth expansion of supervisory jurisdiction and focus on the CFPB’s findings in two key areas:

  • Transcript withholding policies at institutional lenders (e.g. for-profit colleges that make private loans directly to student); and
  • Administration by servicers of Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF), Income-Driven Repayment (IDR), and Teacher Loan Forgiveness (TLF).
… Continue Reading

On September 9, 2022, the California Department of Financial Protection & Innovation (the “DFPI”) released a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking Action that proposes to adopt regulations implementing the Student Loan Servicing Act (section 28100, et seq.) and the Student Loans: Borrower Rights Law (Civil Code section 1788.100, et seq.). … Continue Reading