Consumer Financial Services Outlook 2019: Student Lending

The flurry of legal activity that we saw in the student loan space last year has continued unabated. Among other things, we now have several states with a student loan ombudsman addressing borrower complaints at the state level. At the same time, consumer advocacy groups have escalated their criticism of the Department of Education and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s handling of and reporting on such complaints at the federal level. Individual state attorneys general in California, Illinois, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Pennsylvania, and Washington continue litigating claims that major student loan servicers have engaged in allegedly unfair, deceptive, and abusive servicing practices, with copycat private class actions following in the wake of such litigation.

More states have begun rolling out new licensing requirements and performance standards for student loan servicers, while legislation that failed to pass in other states is now under active reconsideration following the results of last November’s elections. With 2019 likely to be another critical year in terms of the federal and state regulatory balance, join us as we identify some of the key legal challenges facing student loan originators, servicers, and collectors.

Our panelists will discuss: