In letter to Acting Director Mick Mulvaney, Seth Frotman cites concerns with leadership and changes to the bureau’s student loan office this year as reasons for his resignation.
8/28/2018 15:00
The Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection’s Student Loan Ombudsman Seth Frotman on Monday announced his resignation, effective Sept. 1.
In a letter to BCFP Acting Director Mick Mulvaney, as well as Secretary of the U.S. Department of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin, Secretary of the U.S. Department of Education Betsy DeVos and several members of Congress, Frotman cited leadership of the bureau and “sweeping changes” in the student loan oversight as reasons for his resignation.
“By undermining the bureau’s own authority to oversee the student loan market, the bureau has failed borrowers who depend on independent oversight to halt bad practices and bring accountability to the student loan industry,” Frotman writes in the letter published by Politico.
In May, the BCFP announced that it is combining its student loan office with the financial education division, ACA International previously reported. It also released its spring 2018 Unified Agenda of Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions without mention of student loan servicing initiatives.
Mulvaney, according to a report from The Hill at the time, issued a staff memo May 9 stating the office of Students and Young Consumers, currently part of the Consumer Education and Engagement Division, would be moved into the Office of Financial Education.
The bureau has not released a statement about Frotman’s resignation. In May, ACA International reported that the bureau’s student loan ombudsman position was not impacted by the changes to the student loan office.
ACA International will continue to follow this story and provide updates in ACA Daily.
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