Nation’s top student loan official resigns

NEW YORK — The government official overseeing the $1.5 trillion student loan market resigned in protest on Monday, citing what he says is the White House’s open hostility toward protecting the nation’s millions of student loan borrowers.

Seth Frotman will step down as student loan ombudsman at the end of the week, according to his resignation letter, which was obtained by The Associated Press. He held that position since 2016 but has been with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau since its inception in 2011.

Frotman is the latest high-level departure from the CFPB since Mick Mulvaney, President Donald Trump’s budget director, took over in late November. But Frotman’s departure is especially noteworthy, since his nonpartisan office is one of the few parts of the U.S. government that was tasked with handling student loan issues.

The office was at the center of the lawsuits against for-profit colleges like Corinthian Colleges and is heading up a lawsuit between the CFPB and Navient, one of the nation’s largest student lenders.

The Navient lawsuit has been mired in red tape as the Department of Education, headed by Betsy Devos, has been unwilling to help the CFPB with its lawsuit. Since its creation, the student loan office has returned $750 million to harmed borrowers.

“You have used the bureau to serve the wishes of the most powerful financial companies in America,” Frotman wrote, addressing his letter tomulvaney.“thedamageyouhave done to the bureau betrays these families and sacrifices the financial futures of millions of Americans in communities across the country.”