The Latest Sign the Trump Administration Could Be a Boon to Student Loan Companies

Clare McCann was quoted in MarketWatch

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2017/09/05/education-dept-rebukes-cfpb-overreach-kills-information-sharing-agreement

 on the working relationship between the Department of Education and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau:

Under the so-called memos of understanding, the agencies shared issues brought to their attention so they could, in theory, better resolve them. For example, many student loan borrowers have both federal loans, which are largely overseen by the Department of Education, and private loans, which are overseen by the CFPB, but may not know which loans are which. That means it’s very easy for borrowers to accidentally submit a complaint about their loan to the wrong agency, according to Clare McCann, the deputy director for federal higher education policy at New America, a think tank. The Department of Education can exert leverage over companies in the federal student loan space through its contracts with the firms, whereas the CFPB often regulates companies in both the private and federal student loan space through enforcement actions.

Getting rid of the information-sharing agreements “is only going to make it more challenging for borrowers who are trying to resolve complaints and issues with their loans,” said McCann, who is also a former staffer at the Department of Education.