On February 9, the U.S. Department of Education (ED) released an announcement about updates that postsecondary institutions must make to their cybersecurity and data protection policies in order to comply with the Federal Trade Commission’s amended Standards for Safeguarding Customer Information (Safeguards Rule), a component of the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA). The effective date for most
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has released guidance to its attorneys regarding requests to discharge student loans in bankruptcy cases. The 16-page memorandum developed in coordination with the Department of Education (DOE) advises DOJ attorneys to “recommend to the court that a debtor’s student loan be discharged if three conditions are satisfied: (1) the
As discussed here, on November 18, the Biden administration filed an application with the U.S. Supreme Court to vacate the Eighth Circuit injunction temporarily pausing the administration’s student loan forgiveness program. In its application, the administration requested that the Court either vacate the injunction, or, in the alternative, to construe the application as a
The Biden administration’s student loan forgiveness program is on hold indefinitely after a Texas federal court issued its decision, finding the program to be unconstitutional. In Brown v. U.S. Department of Education, the Northern District of Texas held that the Higher Education Relief Opportunities for Students Act of 2003 (HEROES Act) does not
On November 2, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) released a blog post, exploring the potential impact of student loan payment reinstatement. The CFPB found that student loan borrowers are increasingly likely to struggle once their monthly student loan payments are reinstated. However, the CFPB also found that student debt cancellation may substantially reduce
On October 13, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) released its 12th Annual Report to Congress on college credit card agreements. The report reviewed agreements and data covering the over 1.2 million student checking and credit card accounts that are governed by partnerships between institutions of higher education and financial services providers, and it highlighted
On September 29, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB or Bureau) released a special edition of its Supervisory Highlights, focusing on student loan servicing. The report contained findings on federal student loan servicing that echo many recent public comments by the Bureau, but more notably, this edition of Supervisory Highlights also focused heavily on
On August 30, the California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation (CA DFPI) published a notice of rulemaking action, proposing amendments to the Student Loan Servicing Act.
According to the CA DFPI, when the Student Loan Servicing Act first became effective in 2017, student loans contained traditional student loans, defined in the proposed rules as
On April 18, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB or Bureau) published a blog post, scrutinizing the practice of withholding transcripts from students with delinquent accounts and who are attending an institute of higher education.
The practice of withholding transcripts as a collections tactic has never been popular with regulators or consumer advocates. As
On April 14, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB or Bureau) published a report titled Student Loan Borrowers Potentially At-Risk when Payment Suspension Ends. The publication uses data from the CFPB’s Consumer Credit Panel to identify which types of borrowers may struggle to make their scheduled loan payments based on five potential risk factors: