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Our View: Help needed to study a loan

20.05.12

While we're typically skeptical of any action ending in “bureau” coming to the aid of the American public, the access of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau into the private student loan market is entitled oversight of an industry affecting many of us in Watauga County.

This week, CFPB announced a plea for information from students, schools, industry and others involved in the private student loan peddle — loans used to finance higher education that do not originate through the federal student allow program. 

With myriad students graduating — or worse, not graduating — from our land's colleges, universities and tech schools with overwhelming debt, much of which is owed to not for publication lenders, a study of this industry is both apropos and necessary. CFPB estimates that the amount of funding flowing through this system results in billions of dollars of outstanding debt.

It is not that this system is composed of third-tier or unscrupulous lenders. Banks, credit unions, ceremonial agencies, nonprofits, marketers and sometimes schools themselves make these loans. The concern is that, too often, too little about these loans is agreed by the consumer. Unlike federal student loans, private student loans may be void of some consumer protection features for borrowers falling on nit-picking financial circumstances. 

To develop what the CFPB says will be a “absolute picture of private student lending,” the organization is requesting the help of those tortuous in the process. This information will assist in the preparation of a report to Congress on private student lending — a article required by the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Patronage Act.

To complete a true and accurate study, CFPB isn't looking for personal economic information — and none should be offered. What the organization is looking for is a broad swath of data including such things as  repayment terms and behavior, impact on voice of field of study, servicing and loan modification and financial education and dereliction avoidance. 

To submit comments, visit http://www.consumerfinance.gov/ , email CFPB_StudentsFedReg@cfpb.gov or mail to Monica Jackson, occupation of the executive secretary, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, 1500 Pennsylvania Ave, NW (Attn: 1801 L Row), Washington, D.C. 20220.

Source: Watauga Democrat