WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) Director Kathy Kraninger announced the appointment of Robert G. Cameron to serve as the Bureau’s private education loan ombudsman. Cameron most recently worked as a high-ranking official at the Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency (PHEAA), a student loan servicer that has been cited for mishandling payments and forgiveness programs for public service workers.
The Center for Responsible Lending (CRL) Executive Vice President Debbie Goldstein released the following statement:
What we’ve seen today is more of the same from this Administration’s appointees. The student loan ombudsman should protect student loan borrowers from poor practices in the student loan industry. Instead, by appointing a former student loan servicer executive to oversee the student loan market, the federal government is signaling that it is not interested in the nation’s 44 million student loan borrowers or their families. In the absence of real federal oversight, states have no choice but to step up and protect student loan borrowers.
For more information, or to arrange an interview with a CRL spokesperson on this issue, please contact Vincenza Previte at vincenza.previte@responsiblelending.org.