Today, Federal Student Aid released a series of quarterly updates to its portfolio reports on its FSA Data Center to include data as of June 30, 2020. These reports reflect changes made to borrower accounts because of the administration’s executive action in late March and provisions included as part of the CARES Act, which was signed on March 27, 2020.
As a result of the executive action and the CARES Act, payments were suspended, collections were stopped, and interest was waived on all ED-held student loans [Federal Family Education Loan (FFEL) Program loans and Federal Perkins Loan Program loans owned by the Department of Education and all Direct Loans (DL)]. While the CARES Act provisions were set to expire on September 30, 2020, President Trump directed the Secretary on August 8, 2020, to continue to suspend loan payments, stop collections, and waive interest on ED-held student loans until December 31, 2020.
This release also includes the July and August Borrower Defense to Repayment and Public Service Loan Reports. Last month, Federal Student Aid posted quarterly updates to its application and disbursement reports, including preliminary data for the 2019-2020 award year.
Federal Student Aid proactively posts reports to the FSA Data Center website in support of open government initiatives to help ensure consistency, increase transparency, and establish self-service opportunities for stakeholders.
Key Findings in Reports
While not exhaustive, the information below provides a snapshot of key findings in our most recent reporting. Student loans are highly cyclical in nature. As a result, figures generally should be compared year over year whenever possible. However, due to the unprecedented nature of changes resulting from the CARES Act, cyclical comparisons may not provide meaningful comparisons for this period.