The purpose of NCHER’s Private Loan and Consumer Finance Committee is to provide a forum for state, nonprofit, and for-profit loan providers, servicers, collection agencies, schools and others to promote the development of sound public policy with respect to private education loans. The Committee tracks non-federal education lending, including consumer credit products that do not meet the statutory definition of private education loans but still provide funds to pay for higher education (e.g., open-end credit programs, home equity loans, and mortgage loan refinancing). The Committee monitors consumer credit legislative and regulatory activities at both the national and state levels and provides recommended improvements to policy makers. The Committee’s mission is aligned with NCHER’s mission to enhance member organizations’ abilities to help families and students develop, pay for, and attain their educational goals so they can pursue meaningful and rewarding work and become contributing members of society.
Membership
The Committee’s membership is open to all employees of NCHER members in good standing. More than one employee may attend a Committee meeting, participate on a committee conference call, and be included on the Committee email listserv.
Leadership
The Committee is led by a chair or co-chairs who will, when present, preside at all meetings of the membership. The chair or co-chairs are recruited by NCHER based on the individual’s subject matter expertise and the approval of the individual’s employer, as the chair or co-chairs often devote significant time and travel to committee business. The chair/co-chairs serve two-year terms – staggered when possible to promote continuity – and are not limited in tenure.
Meetings and Communications
The Committee holds at least one in-person meeting per year and holds conference calls as needed. A portion of the content of the NCHER Knowledge Symposium, the annual conference focused on providing professional development to senior executive and operational staff, is dedicated to topics of interest to the Committee. The Committee also has an active e-mail listserv that provides daily items of interest to committee members.
For Committee meetings, the agenda is developed by the NCHER staff with input provided by the chair or co-chairs. Meetings are held either in Chicago, Illinois (hosted by the University of Illinois at Chicago) or alternate sites chosen by NCHER staff with Committee input. A nominal registration fee of $100 is charged to Committee participants to offset a portion of the meeting costs. A group dinner is organized in conjunction with all Committee meetings to support and promote networking and relationship building among Committee members.
Sub-Committees/Working Groups
The Committee leadership may create sub-committees or working groups to address specific issues that require a specific subset of expertise and/or are time-sensitive and need to be addressed/resolved between in-person meetings of the Committee.
Charge
The Committee shall:
- Promote early access, financial literacy, and college planning initiatives, including responsible borrowing for those students and families who need to access federal and private student loans to cover the costs of their postsecondary education. Such efforts should occur in conjunction with the NCHER College and Success Committee.
- Promote the availability of private education loans, including developing materials that highlight the fact that private student loans may carry competitive rates and terms with federal student loans, especially Federal PLUS Loans, which may reduce total borrowing costs to a postsecondary education.
- Monitor origination, repayment, delinquency, and default prevention trends and debt recovery performance of federal and private education loans, and discuss and offer ideas to promote successful repayment, reduce defaults, and increase recoveries.
- Discuss operational issues and best practices for lenders, servicers, collection agencies, and other participants within the private loan industry.
- Monitor the regulatory activities of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) regarding federal and private education loans including, but not limited to, the Bureau’s consumer complaint portal; enforcement actions, including supervisory actions impacting servicers and collectors; and efforts to increase federal servicing and debt collection standards impacting the membership, and make recommendations for improvement.
- Actively participate in Committee meetings and conference calls and support the goals and objectives of the Committee.
- Assist the NCHER staff in developing the agenda for Committee meetings and delivering sessions relevant to the Committee at the NCHER conferences.
- Assist NCHER’s advocacy efforts in identifying items of interest to its membership at the federal level and building consensus on policy positions that can be promoted with Members of Congress and the Administration.
- Assist NCHER’s communications efforts in the development of "one-pagers” highlighting the important work that the nation’s private education loan providers and servicers provide to students, borrowers, and families.
- Assist NCHER’s research efforts undertaken to influence the development of federal policy; such effort could include conducting a robust survey on how much consumers know about the true cost of Federal PLUS Loans as compared to private education loans.
- Work with other NCHER Committees and Caucuses to advocate for priorities that are in the interests of the membership.
Advocacy Priorities
The Committee’s current advocacy priorities include, but are not limited to:
- Considering proposals that would prevent federal student loans from having an unfair advantage over private loans and/or prevent over-borrowing of federal loans, particularly in the PLUS program.
- Promoting the availability of lower-cost private loans to students and parents, including the ability to refinance Federal Direct Loans. Such efforts include, but are not limited to:
- Repealing preferred lending list requirements.
- Mandating that Direct Loan borrowers receive accurate disclosure of the cost of their loans.
- Permitting private lenders to remove the record of default reported to credit bureaus upon the rehabilitation of a private education loan.
- Allowing certain student loan organizations to issue private student loans, and exempting student loan-based securities from the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT).
- Monitoring and responding to the regulatory efforts of the CFPB, including anticipated action regarding federal servicing standards for federal and private student loans, anticipated rules imposing arbitration prohibitions, and anticipated proposed rules governing debt collection practices for federal and private student loans.
- Pushing the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to carry out the provisions included in the Bipartisan Budget Act amending the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) to allow for the use of new technologies when contacting delinquent and defaulted borrowers, realizing that authority to use such technology will likely not immediately apply to private education loan holders and servicers.
- Determining the feasibility of proposals seeking to provide the private sector with a greater role in the federal student loan program.
