Citing concerns about the Trump administration favoring big businesses over student borrowers, the government’s top official responsible for student loan complaints and management resigned in protest Monday, the Associated Press reports.
The student loan ombudsman, Seth Frotman, has been overseeing the $1.5 trillion student loan market since 2016, but will step down at the end of the week.
He served within the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau as the point-person for all student loan borrowers. The office also fights against corrupt activities in the market and, according to AP, has returned $750 million to wronged borrowers since it was created along with the CFPB seven years ago.
The CFPB is currently led by acting director Mick Mulvaney, who doubles as President Donald Trump’s budget director. Since taking over the agency in November, Mulvaney has worked to roll back enforcement and proposed removing Obama-era regulations.
“You have used the bureau to serve the wishes of the most powerful financial companies in America,” Frotman wrote in his resignation letter to Mulvaney, AP reports.
Mulvaney had downgraded the mission of Frotman’s office earlier this summer by moving it under consumer education instead of enforcement.
“The damage you have done to the bureau betrays these families and sacrifices the financial futures of millions of Americans in communities across the country,” wrote Frotman.
