CFPB: Student Loan Ombudsman Resigns
On August 27, 2018 Seth Frotman, Student Loan Ombudsman at the CFPB since 2016, resigned. He had been instrumental in returning over $750 million to students who had been defrauded by student loan services.
Frotman came to the CFPB from the Treasury Department in 2011 as part of the team tasked with creating the new agency. He began in the Office of Servicemembers Affairs where he helped crack down on lenders and retailers who preyed on service members.
When Dodd-Frank was passed into law, it included a specific position for a Student Loan Ombudsman to deal with the increasing number of cases of fraud by student loan services. In May 2018, Mick Mulvaney downgraded the position. In violation of Dodd-Frank, Mulvaney took away the Student Loan Ombudsman’s enforcement powers, and turned it into a so-called “consumer education” position, curtailing all current work to protect student borrowers.
ACORN's First Time Homebuyer Program
Intimidating to nearly everyone, the home buying process can seem impossible to millions of low- and moderate-income Americans.
Beginning in 1986, ACORN Housing’s mortgage counseling program started a program to help first time homebuyers learn about and be better prepared for the process of buying a home. In their first 15 years, they helped over 50,000 families achieve their dreams of homeownership.
ACORN Housing also helped thousands of existing homeowners avoid foreclosure and preserve their homes by helping them negotiate with lenders. They frequently worked with victims of predatory lending as well as those who were facing serious and unexpected financial hardships.