How We Can Help Students Get Honest, Unbiased Financial Advice (Sen. Mike Enzi)

Today I introduced a bill to protect students and their families by making sure that the colleges, lenders, and loan guaranty agencies that provide student loans are held accountable to a lender’s code of conduct.

Students rely on financial advisors at their schools to provide them honest, unbiased advice about the loans that will affect their lives for years to come. This bill will safeguard and protect student borrowers by requiring schools, lenders, and guaranty agencies to abide by an ethical code of conduct that abolishes the potential for conflicts of interest that exists today.

In this era of rising college costs, it is more important than ever to make sure that the colleges, lenders and guaranty agencies that provide student loans to help pay for college operate in a fair, accountable and transparent manner. If students and families are to make informed decisions about how to pay for college, they must have clear, accurate, comprehensive information on which to base their decisions.

This bill will establish a Code of Conduct for institutions of higher education that prohibits colleges and their employees from receiving anything of value from any lender in exchange for competitive advantages sought by the lender. The prohibition applies not only to gifts and trips, but to compensation for service on advisory boards and consulting contracts.

The bill, the “Student Loan Accountability and Disclosure Reform Act,