TAKING A STAND

Top U.S. Student Loan Official Resigns in Protest

Saying the government’s actions have served “the wishes of the most powerful financial companies in America.”

Seth Frotman—the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s “student loan ombudsman”—resigned from his position in protest Monday, citing the Trump administration’s “open hostility” towards borrowers. “You have used the bureau to serve the wishes of the most powerful financial companies in America,” Frotman wrote in his resignation letter, which was addressed to the CFPB’s acting director, Mick Mulvaney. “The damage you have done to the bureau betrays these families and sacrifices the financial futures of millions of Americans in communities across the country.” According to the Associated Press, the CFBP has scaled back student-loan enforcement work and has revised many of the Obama-era rules and regulations. Mulvaney also “downgraded” Frotman’s office from being the agency’s enforcement umbrella to “consumer education.” This summer, the Trump administration and Education Secretary Besty DeVos proposed reforms on student loan forgiveness policies.