Advocacy in Action: NASFAA’s Loan Servicing Recommendations Incorporated into FSA Overhaul – NASFAA
In recent years the financial aid community — including NASFAA — has voiced concern about disruptions, inconsistencies, and lack of quality servicing on federal student loans.
As such, NASFAA has convened task forces over the last several years to develop recommendations to improve the student loan repayment process for borrowers, and has worked to get those recommendations incorporated into federal reform.
Recently, the Office of Federal Student Aid (FSA) announced updates to its loan servicing overhaul through the Next Generation Financial Services Environment (Next Gen), including several of NASFAA’s recommendations for improving the loan servicing process.
Borrowers first and foremost need an accessible “one-stop shop” where they can manage all of their student loans, which is why NASFAA has called for the development of a central loan portal where students can manage all of their loans — a recommendation included in FSA’s Next Gen loan servicing update. NASFAA called for this portal to be developed and managed by the Department of Education (ED) to allow students to easily access all their Direct Loan, Federal Family Education Loan (FFEL), and Perkins Loan portfolios in one central place.