Student loan watchdog resigns amid Trump admin's efforts to promote profit

[BmorePat87]

https://www.npr.org/2018/08/27/642199524/student-loan-watchdog-quits-blames-trump-administration

Seth Frotman, the student loan ombudsman at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, had spent 7 years working to protect military families and students from predatory lending. He resigned recently, citing the agencies efforts to reduce protections for consumers and promote the interest of financial institutes.

Frotman remarks at the bureau once served to demand reform and hold student loan companies accountable, returning over $750m to harmed borrowers, but that the bureau now has adopted practices that have begun to harm consumers.

His main charges are that under Mick Mulvaney (who called the bureau a "joke... in a sick, sad kind of way" before he took office), the bureau has 1) undercut enforcement of existing law, 2)undermined the bureau's independence, and 3) shielded bad actors from scrutiny.

Quote:Over the past year, the Trump administration has increasingly sidelined the CFPB's student loan office. Last August, the U.S. Department of Education announced it would stop sharing information with the bureau about the department's oversight of federal student loans, calling the CFPB "overreaching and unaccountable" and arguing that the bureau's actions were confusing borrowers and loan servicers alike. Of the move, Frotman writes, "the Bureau's current leadership folded to political pressure ... and failed borrowers who depend on independent oversight to halt bad practices."

This year the bureau moved from investigating abuses to sharing data on lending, something the DOE did too with regards to institutes of higher learning that had high student debt but low graduate employment achievement. The DOE has argued that lenders should be protected from efforts to regulate them as student loan debt in this country continues to grow, threatening the financial security of whole generations.

[Dill]

(08-27-2018, 01:22 PM)BmorePat87 Wrote: https://www.npr.org/2018/08/27/642199524/student-loan-watchdog-quits-blames-trump-administration

Seth Frotman, the student loan ombudsman at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, had spent 7 years working to protect military families and students from predatory lending. He resigned recently, citing the agencies efforts to reduce protections for consumers and promote the interest of financial institutes.

Frotman remarks at the bureau once served to demand reform and hold student loan companies accountable, returning over $750m to harmed borrowers, but that the bureau now has adopted practices that have begun to harm consumers.

His main charges are that under Mick Mulvaney (who called the bureau a "joke... in a sick, sad kind of way" before he took office), the bureau has 1) undercut enforcement of existing law, 2)undermined the bureau's independence, and 3) shielded bad actors from scrutiny.



This year the bureau moved from investigating abuses to sharing data on lending, something the DOE did too with regards to institutes of higher learning that had high student debt but low graduate employment achievement. The DOE has argued that lenders should be protected from efforts to regulate them as student loan debt in this country continues to grow, threatening the financial security of whole generations.

Lots of military TA and GI bill money going to those lending institutions.  Young military members are easy prey.

[Belsnickel]

The reversal in oversight that has occurred during this administration has been one of my biggest issues. Letting industry regulate itself and letting people that don't understand the agencies they are tasked with heading up is a big mistake, but it has been the modus operandi for the past two years. It was bad enough that the influence was already strong in the government during prior presidencies, but this has just been brutal. It is flaunting the oligarchical system in our faces.

[NATI BENGALS]

I wonder if the guy fresh off of scamming kids for life savings and causing massive life changing debt with a fraudulent university has any interest in this?

Betsy is going to be able to build her own yacht ship yard.

[Belsnickel]

(08-27-2018, 08:19 PM)NATI BENGALS Wrote: I wonder if the guy fresh off of scamming kids for life savings and causing massive life changing debt with a fraudulent university has any interest in this?

Betsy is going to be able to build her own yacht ship yard.

This made me go read on DeVos, just because every time I think about it I like to read more about her and grow my disdain. How are you going to moor a yacht in Lake Erie that is registered in the Cayman Islands? Rich people do some backflips to avoid paying taxes.