White House Targets Servicer Practices in Student 'Bill of Rights'

WASHINGTON — President Obama has directed the Department of Education and other agencies to institute changes meant to improve student loan servicing in an initiative the White House calls "a student aid bill of rights."

The secretary of Education will create a web site by July 2016 for student borrowers to file complaints or provide feedback about how lenders, servicers, collection agencies, and universities handle student loans.

"We're going to make sure that loan servicers can find better ways to help borrowers keep up with monthly payments that they can afford," Obama said in a speech in Atlanta on Tuesday.

The Department of Education will also now require student lending contractors to provide more information about when a servicer transfers a federal student loan to another servicer, when borrowers become delinquent, and how often borrowers begin but do not finish a refinancing. The requirement is designed to ensure that procedures related to a loan stay consistent when transferred between servicers, and borrowers know who controls their loan. The Department of Education will also establish a centralized point of access for borrowers to access their account and payment information. 

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