College Students for Financial Reform

Every day, we see new evidence of who has been affected by the lack of financial regulation in this country.  This weekend, that reminder came from Indiana, where a college student wrote to his local paper about the need for students to support the CFPA.  The South Bend Tribune published Andrew Merki’s letter, in which he says that he’s glad he got a chance to go to college, but:

But at some point the benefits of a college degree are undercut by the deep financial risk students take on to get it. The Indiana Public Interest Research Group, a consumer advocacy organization at IU Bloomington, just released a report finding that 62 percent of Indiana’s college graduates carry student loan debt, which averages $23,264 per student. Most is in the form of safer, federal loans. But a significant amount is in private student loans, which are unregulated and much riskier. Indiana students graduated with an average of $3,556 in private student loans in 2008.

It’s not just Andrew’s problem.  Private student loans, payday loans, car title loans, and other loan products and practices are unregulated on a national level and cause problems for many consumers.  The proposed Consumer Financial Protection Agency could finally help regulate these loans and provide some peace of mind for consumers like Andrew and his classmates.

(Photo: Rennett Stowe)