Dive Summary:
- Rohit Chopra, student loan ombudsman for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, addressed Congress in a special hearing Tuesday to request that former students be given more flexibility in handling private student loans.
- The Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Consumer Protection hearing came just days after the release of a CFPB and Department of Education study that reported lax lending standards and predatory marketing practices in the increase of private students loans between 2008.
- The report also urged Congress to reconsider a 2005 law preventing private student loans from inclusion in bankruptcy protection, though that move is unlikely to go anywhere.
From the article:
Borrowers of private student-loans need better, more-flexible options for repaying their debt, consumer advocates and an official with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau told a U.S. Senate panel on Tuesday. Rohit Chopra, student-loan ombudsman for the bureau, said that Congress should seek to make it easier for former students to modify the terms of their private student loans. Unlike most other forms of consumer debt, private student loans are difficult to refinance and cannot be discharged in bankruptcy, he said. "Even some of the most responsible borrowers-those who may be making...