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Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB)
CFPB Report Details Student Borrower Harms from Servicing Failures and Program Disruptions
The CFPB has released the annual report of the Student Loan Ombudsman. This report highlights severe difficulties reported by student borrowers due to persistent loan servicing failures and program disruptions. While the report details how many borrowers have benefited from relief programs, it also tells the CFPB how servicing breakdowns, improperly processed payments, and inaccurate information provided by servicers have stymied the borrower’s return to repayment.
CFPB Student Loan Ombudsman Julia Barnard said, “Our analysis of over 18,000 consumer complaints shows that servicer errors with billing, customer service failures, and incorrect repayment information are causing severe financial and personal distress to borrowers.” “As the federal loan system undergoes rapid changes, it is crucial that servicers immediately address these persistent issues. Policymakers should ensure that student borrowers can access the loan cancellation and lower monthly payments they are entitled to and implement new accountability measures to fix these long-standing problems.”
This report, like those in previous years, will being used to urge systemic reforms to improve student loan servicing, which includes last month's orders for Navient to pay $120 million. More reform is expected to come.
Making Ends Meet in 2024: Insights from the Making Ends Meet Survey
The CFPB released a research publication which provides insights from the Making Ends Meet survey. Overall financial stability and well-being deteriorated from 2023 to 2024. The deterioration occurred across demographic groups and measures.
Financial well-being measured using the CFPB’s scale fell and the share of consumers with the lowest financial well-being increased. More households had difficulty paying bills or expenses. Fewer households could cover a month of expenses if they lost their main source of income. These changes place overall financial health around where it was in 2019—and slightly worse by some measures—after the sharp improvement in financial health that started in 2020 due to COVID-19 government programs.
Meanwhile, large disparities in financial stability and health continue across income, racial, and ethnic groups. Access to credit remains difficult for many consumers.
CFPB Issues Final Rule Defining Larger Participants for General-Use Digital Consumer Payment Applications
The CFPB issued a final rule which will define larger participants of a market for general use digital consumer payment applications. Larger participants of this market will be subject to the CFPB’s supervisory authority under the Consumer Financial Protection Act (CFPA). A nonbank covered person qualifies as a larger participant if it (1) facilitates an annual covered consumer payment transaction volume of at least 50 million transactions as defined in the rule; and (2) is not a small business concern.
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Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA)
Foreign Threat Actor Conducting Large-Scale Spear-Phishing Campaign with Remote Desktop Protocol Applications
CISA released an alert due to receiving multiple reports of a large-scale spear-phishing campaign targeting organizations in several sectors, including government and information technology (IT). The foreign threat actor, often posing as a trusted entity, is sending spear-phishing emails containing malicious remote desktop protocol (RDP) files to targeted organizations to connect to and access files stored on the target’s network. Once access has been gained, the threat actor may pursue additional activity, such as deploying malicious code to achieve persistent access to the target’s network.
The alert provides proactive measures that credit unions can take such as:
CISA urges users and administrators to remain vigilant against spear-phishing attempts, hunt for any malicious activity, and report positive findings to CISA.
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