During our September Market Pulse webinar, “Navigating Student Loans, Part II: Strengthening Origination Resilience,” I had the privilege of interviewing our team of Equifax Risk Advisors which includes, Jesse Hardin, David Sojka, Tom Aliff and Tom O’Neill, as well as Economist and President of Keybridge, Robert Wescott, who answered your pressing questions pertaining to student loans. If we were unable to answer your questions during the webinar due to time, don’t fret. Below we have collected and answered the questions we were unable to answer during the webinar. 

Or check-out our recording and deck from the webinar here:

• Webinar deck

• Webinar recording

Do you believe in a few months the government will issue some sort of relief for people suffering with student loans?

Robert Wescott: This is a great question. The Biden Administration clearly would like to forgive student debt for lower-income borrowers — and views this as part of a 2020 campaign pledge. As many Americans remember, the Administration previously offered a plan to forgive up to $20,000 in debts for households below a certain income threshold, but courts have struck down its legal ability to do so. The Administration and its Department of Education are attempting new ways to offer some form of student debt relief. Many of them are centered on what is being called the SAVE Plan, which offers income-based repayment schedules. The Department of Education says it is reworking the plan and may have new guidance to offer starting in July 2024. Stay tuned!

Do you have a reference for that rule (SAVE Plan)?

Robert Wescott: The Saving on a Valuable Education (SAVE) plan is a new income-driven repayment program rolled out by the Biden Administration this year. You can find more information about eligibility and expected changes to the program in 2024 at studentaid.gov. 

The delinquency is going to be delayed - what do you mean by that?

Jesse Hardin: The Biden Administration has enacted an on-ramp process whereby the U.S. Department of Education has directed that student loan delinquencies not be reported on government back student loan delinquencies for one year. CRAs therefore, will not see student loan delinquency information until October 2024.

Is there any attribute to separate the federal student loan from the private student loan?

David Sojka: There are no standard attribute sets that break out federal vs. private student loans. If you have the raw credit data you could potentially build custom code to accomplish that separation. 

Do you anticipate borrowers refinancing with private student loans at an increased rate?

David Sojka: We don't believe so since the offering of the on ramp and SAVE programs. These policies help the borrowers only with respect to federal student loans. 

To leverage the insights from the webinar, the Equifax Risk Advisory Team is available for consultation at riskadvisors@equifax.com. 

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