UniversityThe CFPB has finally published the nearly 2,000 comments it received from individual borrowers, parents, and others as a result of the request for information in which it asked a series of questions to assist it in preparing a report about private student loans and set January 17, 2012 as the deadline for responses.  (We wrote about that request in an earlier post.) 

According to a blog post by Rohit Chopra, the CFPB’s student loan ombudsman, the CFPB has done so to allow those comments to be considered in connection with a new request for information that it just published in the Federal Register to help the CFPB “get a more complete picture of private student loan borrower issues.”  

 That new request, which is specifically directed at educational institutions, state attorneys general, consumer advocates and complaint resolutions departments of lenders and servicers, asks for information about borrower complaints (such as featured topics and  generalized descriptions or summaries of individual complaints without personally identifiable information), and the processes institutions have in place to respond to complaints.  Perhaps making it clear who the CFPB really wants to hear from, Mr. Chopra stated that the CFPB has also sent a letter to attorneys general, schools and advocacy groups about the request for information (with the Federal Register notice included as an enclosure.)   

The CFPB apparently wants the information to “assist the Bureau in satisfying the [Dodd-Frank] requirement” for the ombudsman to compile and analyze data on borrower complaints about private student loans.   Oddly, there is no mention of the CFPB using the information in connection with the report it is preparing on private student loans.  Comments on the CFPB’s request must be filed by August 13, 2012.