Ex-student loan official who resigned from CFPB in protest launches new watchdog group

by Jillian Berman, Marketwatch

Image courtesy of Pexels

Image courtesy of Pexels

A major student loan watchdog is back on the beat.

Seth Frotman, who resigned in protest earlier this year from his position as the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s student loan ombudsman, announced Wednesday that he’s launching a new organization aimed at tackling the nation’s student loan problem. The Student Borrower Protection Center, which is staffed by some of Frotman’s former colleagues at the CFPB, plans to work with organizations across the country addressing student loan issues.

Frotman said his experience hearing from student loan borrowers in person and via complaints they submitted during his time at the CFPB gave him a sense both of the weight student loans are placing on borrowers’ financial futures and of the ways companies are looking to profit off that burden. Even though he’s no longer at the CFPB, Frotman said he decided to launch the new organization because the issues he worked on at the bureau were “too important to just walk away from.”

“The new organization, including the folks from my team who were on the front lines of standing up for borrowers and fighting back against the student debt crisis are committed to continuing that work with anyone and everyone who sees the impact this is having,” Frotman said in a phone interview from Albany after testifying on student loan issues to the New York State legislature.

Read the rest at Marketwatch →

Tags: , ,