On September 12, 2024, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) filed a stipulated proposed order in its suit against the student loan servicer Navient, formerly known as Sallie Mae. If entered, the order will resolve the claims in the CFPB’s January 2017 complaint, which accused Navient of forbearance steering and other breakdowns in its income-driven
The California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation (DFPI) recently issued a Notice of Modification to Proposed Regulations and published the newly modified proposed regulations to amend its student loan servicing regulations. Among other things, the modified regulations would expand the definition of “income share agreement,” impose additional rules related to responding to a borrower’s
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (CFPB) focus on ensuring loan servicers’ compliance with the implementation of the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program continues. On March 30, 2022, the CFPB entered into a Consent Order with student loan servicer EdFinancial Services, LLC, to settle the CFPB’s allegations that EdFinancial committed deceptive servicing acts and practices
Yesterday, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) released its Fall Supervisory Highlights. The report covers examinations completed between January and June of 2021. Over the last year, the Biden-era CFPB has made various statements about its priorities. For instance, the Bureau has issued comments or taken action related to the small dollar lending agenda,
A district court judge recently reversed and remanded a well-known bankruptcy decision discharging a significant student loan debt. In the Southern District of New York, Judge Philip Halpern, reviewing the bankruptcy court’s summary judgment decision de novo, found that neither the debtor nor the defendant were entitled to summary judgment under the familiar Brunner test.
Now that the pandemic’s “social distancing” is lessening, we hope you are all able to gather with friends and family this Thanksgiving. As we do the same, we wanted to count our blessings as we review the year. This year, we are thankful for being able to return to our offices, our favorite restaurants, and
On September 7, 2021, the CFPB issued a consent order against Better Future Forward, Inc., and related entities (collectively, BFF), companies that provide financing for postsecondary education to students via income share agreements (ISAs). In this enforcement action, the CFPB found that BFF falsely represented that ISAs do not create debt and are not loans
The Second Circuit has followed the lead of the Tenth and Fifth Circuits in affirming a bankruptcy court ruling regarding private student loans under 11 U.S.C. § 523(a)(8). In Homaidan v. Navient, et al., the court ultimately held that the exception to discharge language – “an obligation to repay funds received as an educational
The Eleventh Circuit’s far-reaching decision in Hunstein v. Preferred Collection and Management Services, Inc. — which we previously covered on this blog — continues to raise questions for the wide range of industries that fall within the FDCPA’s definition of “debt collectors.” To put it briefly, the Eleventh Circuit held that a debt collector violates
On April 21, 2021, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit issued a decision that threatens significant consequences for a variety of loan servicing and debt collection industries. The upshot of the court’s holding is that anyone falling within the FDCPA’s broad definition of “debt collector” violates the FDCPA when it communicates with