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Last Monday, the CFPB announced that it had entered into a new Memorandum of Understanding with the Department of Education to replace the MOU that was terminated by the ED effective October 1, 2017.  The new MOU, which is effective as of January 31, 2020, is limited to the handling of student loan complaints. … Continue Reading

Last week, Congressional representatives Maxine Waters, D-CA, Bobby Scott, D-VA, and Elijah Cummings, D-MD, as chairs of committees with oversight responsibility for the student loan servicing market, sent letters to CFPB Director Kathleen Kraninger and Department of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos about their concerns with the current state of the student loan industry.… Continue Reading

We can add Maine to the list of states to have enacted a “Student Loan Bill of Rights” that requires student loan servicers to be licensed. On June 20th, Maine Governor Janet Mills signed into law LD 995, “An Act To Establish a Student Loan Bill of Rights To License and Regulate Student Loan Servicers,” a bill which the legislature had passed unanimously.… Continue Reading

Colorado and Maryland have each enacted legislation regulating student loan servicers. On May 13, Colorado Governor Jared Polis (D) signed into law SB 19-002, and that same day, Maryland Governor Larry Hogan (R) signed HB 594.

The Colorado law, SB19-002, is the more sweeping of the two, establishing a licensing requirement for student loan servicers, similar to what has been enacted in California, Connecticut, the District of Columbia, Illinois, Washington, and more recently, New York.… Continue Reading

As recently reported, the Washington, D.C. Department of Insurance, Securities, and Banking (DISB) published a Bulletin in late April reminding those who service student education loans in the District of Columbia of their obligation to file an annual report. The DISB has now released the required forms for both the 2018 and 2019 filings.… Continue Reading

A Federal Register entry published last week details a proposed data-sharing arrangement between the Department of Defense (DoD) and the Department of Education (DoE) designed to reduce the amount of interest that certain active duty service members pay on federal student loans.

In 2008, Congress amended the Higher Education Act to provide for the removal of interest on federal student loans for military borrowers during service in war zones.… Continue Reading

On May 15, Maryland Governor Larry Hogan signed into law a bill that, among other things, establishes the role of Student Loan Ombudsman within the Office of the Commissioner of Financial Regulation and sets forth various duties related to that position.

Maryland SB 1068, titled the Financial Consumer Protection Act of 2018, represents a scaled down version of an attempt by state lawmakers to regulate student loan servicers.… Continue Reading

A bipartisan coalition of 30 state attorneys general led by New York AG Eric Schneiderman and Colorado AG Cynthia Coffman have sent a letter to members of Congress urging them to reject a proposed amendment to the Higher Education Act (HEA) that would preempt state law requirements for servicers of federal student loans.… Continue Reading

The CFPB has released the sixth annual report of the CFPB Student Loan Ombudsman containing an analysis of approximately 12,900 federal student loan complaints, 7,700 private student loan complaints, and 2,300 debt collection complaints related to private or federal student loans handled by the CFPB between September 1, 2016 and August 31, 2017. … Continue Reading

California and the District of Columbia have recently released regulations under their respective student loan servicing laws.  Each is taking comments on its regulations, but whereas California has merely issued proposed regulations, the District of Columbia has issued emergency regulations that are currently in effect. A brief summary of the regulations and their effective dates appears below, with links to more detailed discussions that also note the extraordinarily small number of complaints to the CFPB from residents of these jurisdictions as well as the bizarre economic impact of these licensing regimes, which will effectively result in the Department of Education paying the administrative expenses incurred by states asserting the authority to supervise federal student loan servicers.… Continue Reading