Links in “Student Loans”

It's no surprise that the media gets things wrong here and there. In this case, they're greatly exaggerating the average student debt burden by focusing on stories from the 98th percentile of all who have student debt. [8/15/14]

Last week, four credit unions were called out by Rohit Chopra, an assistant director at the CFPB, for not properly disclosing deal terms for products and services marketed to university students. It turns out that two of these credit unions, Indiana University Credit Union and Purdue Federal Credit Union, don't even have marketing agreements with their local universities. [8/11/14]

There is no regulatory requirement that states that financial institutions make public the agreements they may have with universities to market their products to students. However, the CFPB feels that students should be aware if a financial institution is paying their university for access to the student body and in January 2013 urged financial institutions to voluntarily post these types of agreements online. Now the CFPB is publicly criticizing six banks and four credit unions that have marketing agreements with large universities for not taking this voluntary step. [8/8/14]

Report says no. Student debt represents 7% of GDP, whereas mortgage debt peaked at 62% in 2007. [8/7/14]

The CFPB looked at the public disclosure agreements of the financial partners of the 13 member schools of the Big Ten conference with financial partners. The bureau was satisfied with the publicly available contract of only one of the school-financial partner teams (go, Hawkeyes!). It is sending alerts to inform schools that "their bank partner has not yet committed to transparency when it comes to student financial products." It would seem unlikely that the CFPB will limit its attention to the Big Ten. [8/7/14]

ABA says Dept. of Education's recent proposal on campus financial products would severely limit access to traditional banking services for many students. [8/1/14]

Student loan debt is nearing $1.2 trillion. The Treasury Department is trying to develop ways to manage that, including working with Intuit and H&R Block to promote during tax season underused Education Department programs that reduce monthly payments by tying them to a percentage of income for those who struggle, while extending the term of the loan. [7/25/14]

Two studies suggest that the CFPB's assertion that student loan debt discourages homeownership are overblown. [6/27/14]

Department of Education is said to be working closely with the CFPB to make significant restrictions on products that banks sell to college students. Proposed revisions are expected to be issued in July. [6/23/14]

The student loan refinancing bill stalls in the Senate amidst concerns that its flaws may outweigh its benefits, and that more scrutiny may be necessary. [6/17/14]