Some Lenders to Students Face Greater U.S. Scrutiny

New York Times
January 13, 2012
Wyatt, Edward
P. B3

Lead by its newly appointed director, Richard Cordray, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is turning up the heat on nontraditional lenders to students at for-profit colleges and trade schools that have high rates of default. Cordray drew a parallel between the practices employed by some private, non-bank student loans to those of the subprime mortgage lending business that lead to the housing collapse. "We're seeing some of the schools anticipating as much as a 50 percent default rate on their students, yet they're making those loans anyway," he said. In November, the CFPB and the Education Department issued a joint request for information from consumers on the private student loan market. But Cordray said the bureau already has seen evidence of problems in the market. "One of the things we see and have seen is lenders who market loans for borrowers knowing that those borrowers are unlikely to be able to pay those loans," the director said. The Association of Private Sector Colleges and Universities said the claims are "not substantiated."
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