CFPB Releases Annual Report Showing Continued Decline in Student Loan Borrower Complaints – NASFAA
The student loan ombudsman at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) published another iteration of their annual report Wednesday, highlighting a continued decrease in complaints related to private or federal student loans, a trend first documented in 2017.
Over the course of one year, from Sept. 1, 2019, through Aug. 31, 2020, CFPB handled approximately 7,000 complaints related to private or federal student loans. Of that total, 1,900 were private student loan complaints, representing a decrease of roughly 33% compared to the previous year’s report. The remaining approximate 5,000 complaints were related to federal student loans, marking a decrease of roughly 24% compared to the previous year’s report.
As a followup to the current ombudsman’s first annual report released in 2019 — the agency failed to produce one in 2018 as required by the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act — the agency does not attribute the decrease in complaints to a single factor, but instead points to a number of policies and resources to account for the trend, such as the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act as a contributor to decreases documented since March of 2020.