Navient’s CEO Jack Remondi lashed out at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau for daring to do its job to protect student loan borrowers from up to $4 billion in unnecessary interest charges caused by Navient’s illegal servicing practices. Remondi’s complaints are a deceptive and self-interested attempt to evade responsibility for breaking the law.
“In recent years bank lobbyists have started to blame Wall Street regulatory reforms such as those
passed in the Doddd-Frank Act for slow economic growth. But the claim that better financial
oversight is responsible for a poor economic recovery has no foundation. It ignores not only the
devastating economic costs of the financial crisis itself, but key facts about the performance of
the U.S. economy and the profitability of the financial sector since Dodd-Frank passed.”
“Faced with the prospect that millions of Americans will run out of money in retirement and become a burden on government, the U.S. government took action last year to try to take some confusion out of the advice business. The Department of Labor is imposing what’s known as the ‘fiduciary rule’ to improve the chances that when an adviser gives money advice it’s actually untainted advice — best for you, and not a disguised sales pitch.”
We welcome the news that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau took action to protect student loan borrowers today by suing Navient for steering struggling borrowers toward paying more than they had to on their loans. The Bureau is joined by state attorneys general from Illinois and Washington, who today both filed their own lawsuits. This action makes clear why we need a strong, independent CFPB under the leadership of Director Cordray, whose work is putting billions of dollars back in the pockets of the people who earned them, rather than the coffers of companies who stole from them.
“In tens of millions of cases, debt collectors reportedly engaged in conduct barred by the Federal Debt Collections Practices Act. Nearly 40 percent of consumers reported that a debt collector had attempted contact four or more times a week. More than one third of consumers reported being contacted between 9 pm and 8 am. Three in four consumers said that debt collectors had failed to honor a request to cease contact.”
Americans for Financial Reform (AFR) applauds the news that the Department of Education will grant automatic discharges to all former students of American Career Institute (ACI) in Massachusetts. Before being confirmed, any nominee for Secretary of the Department of Education must clearly articulate plans to rapidly pursue additional automatic group discharges, to ensure that all Americans are protected from future exploitation of taxpayer-backed loans by predatory schools.