Chase to Stop Making Student Loans

NEW YORK (Reuters) - JPMorgan Chase & Co (NYS:JPM) will stop making student loans in October, according to a document reviewed by Reuters on Thursday, after the biggest U.S. bank concluded that competition from federal government programs limits its ability to expand the business.

The student loan business is not among those that JPMorgan has publicly said are being probed by government authorities for possibly illegal practices. Those under investigation include mortgage banking, credit card collections, rate-setting for floating-rate business loans and hiring for investment banking in China.

Remaining private loan players in the market, are; Sallie Mae, (SLM.O), Wells Fargo & Co (NYS:WFC) and Discover Financial Services (NYS:DFS).

Government Sees High Returns on Defaulted Student Loans

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704723104576061953842079760.html#printMode

After paying the companies that actually collect the loans and other costs, the U.S. Department of Education expects to recover 85 percent of defaulted federal loan dollars based on current value, the Wall Street Journal reported today. According to White House budget figures for fiscal 2011 ending in September, the federal government expects gross recovery of between $1.10 and $1.22 for every dollar of defaulted student loans. An estimated $49.9 billion of Federal Family Education Loan and Federal Direct Lending Program loans are in default, out of a total $713.4 billion outstanding, as of Sept. 30. Those amounts include only principal balances, not interest.

Student Loan Default on the Rise

While for-profits educate less than 10 percent of students, those colleges' students received close to a quarter of Pell Grant and federal-student-loan dollars in 2008, according to the College Board. And they accounted for 44 percent of defaults among borrowers who entered repayment in 2007, according to the Institute for College Access and Success, a nonprofit organization that advocates making higher education more affordable. When the government can't collect on those loans, taxpayers pick up the tab.

For-profit colleges have long blamed the sector's higher-than-average default rates on the sociodemographics of their students. According to the Career College Association, 43 percent of students attending for-profits are members of minority groups, and almost half are the first in their families to attend college. More than three-quarters are employed.

In the 2009-10 academic year, the average for-profit institution charged $14,174 in tuition and fees, according to the College Board, and the average community college only $2,544.


Thirty percent of loans made to students attending four-year for-profit colleges have defaulted within 15 years of entering repayment, more than twice the default rates at public and private nonprofit four-year colleges, which are 15.1 percent and 13.6 percent, respectively.

http://chronicle.com/article/Many-More-Students-Are/66223/

HR 5043 Student Loan Bankruptcy Fairness Act of 2010

Thanks to David Goch who posted this on the Bankruptcy Roundtable Listserve:


Yesterday, the House Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on Commercial and Administrative Law held a hearing on H.R. 5043, "The Private Student Loan Bankruptcy Fairness Act of 2010".

H.R. 5043, according to Rep. Cohen (D-TN), the bills sponsor along with Rep. Davis (D-Ill.), "is very narrowly tailored to make debt resulting from student loans issued by private, for-profit institutions dischargeable in bankruptcy."

H.R. 5043 amends Bankruptcy Code Section 523(a)(8), eliminating Section 523(a)(8)(B), which currently makes debt from private loans issued by for-profit lenders nondischargeable in bankruptcy absent undue debtor or debtor's dependents hardship. The bill also amends Section 523(a)(8)(A)(i) to clarify that only loans for which substantially all of the funds were provided by a nonprofit institution remain nondischargeble in bankruptcy.

Deanne Loonin, a staff attorney for the National Consumer Law Center, pointed out that student loan borrowers are a very diverse group of people but they chare one common trait: "they're all trying to better themselves through education" and are all struggling with student loan debt. However, Loonin stated "[B]ankruptcy is not and should not be the entire safety net" for borrowers who cannot repay their student loans."

Loonin said she supports H.R. 5043, not because bankruptcy is the best option, but because it is the only option some have to be able to move on with their lives.

According to John Hupalo, managing director at Ramirez Capital Advisors, a group specializing in student loan finance, whether or not to permit bankruptcy discharge of private student loan debt is a complex issue. Huppalo indicated he understood the intended benefit of repealing non-dischargeability of private student loans, but went on to state he is concerned the bill would be "counter-productive to the country's shared goal of making a college education more accessible to the greatest number of students possible."

Adrian Lapas, a solo practitioner testifying on behalf of the National Association of Consumer Bankruptcy Attorneys, voiced support of H.R. 5403, noting that the legislation will "restore fairness in student lending by treating privately issued student loans in bankruptcy the same as other types of private debt."

Meanwhile, in an April 21 letter to Cohen, more than two dozen organizations representing students, consumers, institutions of higher education and civil rights and public policy organizations expressed their support for the bill. Among the groups signing the letter: The American Council on Education, Consumer Action, Consumer Federation of America, Consumers Union, Demos: A Network for Ideas & Action, Rock the Vote, U.S. Public Information Research Group, UNCF, and the National Association for Equal Opportunity in Higher Education.

Pending Student Loan Legislation

Thanks to David Goch who posted this on the Bankruptcy Roundtable Listserve:

Yesterday, the House Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on Commercial and Administrative Law held a hearing on H.R. 5043, "The Private Student Loan Bankruptcy Fairness Act of 2010".
H.R. 5043, according to Rep. Cohen (D-TN), the bills sponsor along with Rep. Davis (D-Ill.), "is very narrowly tailored to make debt resulting from student loans issued by private, for-profit institutions dischargeable in bankruptcy."

H.R. 5043 amends Bankruptcy Code Section 523(a)(8), eliminating Section 523(a)(8)(B), which currently makes debt from private loans issued by for-profit lenders nondischargeable in bankruptcy absent undue debtor or debtor's dependents hardship. The bill also amends Section 523(a)(8)(A)(i) to clarify that only loans for which substantially all of the funds were provided by a nonprofit institution remain nondischargeble in bankruptcy.

Deanne Loonin, a staff attorney for the National Consumer Law Center, pointed out that student loan borrowers are a very diverse group of people but they chare one common trait: "they're all trying to better themselves through education" and are all struggling with student loan debt. However, Loonin stated "[B]ankruptcy is not and should not be the entire safety net" for borrowers who cannot repay their student loans."

Loonin said she supports H.R. 5043, not because bankruptcy is the best option, but because it is the only option some have to be able to move on with their lives.

According to John Hupalo, managing director at Ramirez Capital Advisors, a group specializing in student loan finance, whether or not to permit bankruptcy discharge of private student loan debt is a complex issue. Huppalo indicated he understood the intended benefit of repealing non-dischargeability of private student loans, but went on to state he is concerned the bill would be "counter-productive to the country's shared goal of making a college education more accessible to the greatest number of students possible."

Adrian Lapas, a solo practitioner testifying on behalf of the National Association of Consumer Bankruptcy Attorneys, voiced support of H.R. 5403, noting that the legislation will "restore fairness in student lending by treating privately issued student loans in bankruptcy the same as other types of private debt."

Meanwhile, in an April 21 letter to Cohen, more than two dozen organizations representing students, consumers, institutions of higher education and civil rights and public policy organizations expressed their support for the bill. Among the groups signing the letter: The American Council on Education, Consumer Action, Consumer Federation of America, Consumers Union, Demos: A Network for Ideas & Action, Rock the Vote, U.S. Public Information Research Group, UNCF, and the National Association for Equal Opportunity in Higher Education.