BCFP Student Loan Official Resigns; Blasts Trump Administration

The individual in charge of overseeing student lenders and debt collections related to student loans at the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection has resigned, and he made sure to scorch the earth on his way out the door.

“…under your leadership, the Bureau has abandoned the very consumers it is tasked by Congress with protecting,” read a resignation letter from Seth Frotman, the student loan ombudsman at the BCFP. “Instead, you have used the Bureau to serve the wishes of the most powerful financial companies in America.”

Frotman had served as the student loan ombudsman at the BCFP for the past three years but had worked at the agency since its inception in 2011. In his role, Frotman managed the Office for Students and Young Consumers and investigated complaints made by students and young consumers related to financial services products.

Frotman’s resignation letter goes on to accuse the Trump administration of suppressing a report that charged some of the nation’s largest financial institutions with “saddling [students] with legally dubious account fees.”

In May, Mick Mulvaney, the acting director of the BCFP, announced that the Office for Students and Young Consumers would be folded into the agency’s financial education office, which signaled a shift in the office’s prerogatives from investigation to information-sharing.