Join the Student Borrower Protection Center for a series of discussions about the role of federal and state consumer law in protecting students in the marketplace for Income Share Agreements.

 

Over the course of three panels, advocates, legal experts, industry representatives, and state law enforcement officials will discuss consumer protections related to Income Share Agreements (ISAs), the new wave of risky higher education financing options recently embraced by a growing number of schools across the country. 

 

ISAs require students to pledge a portion of their future income in exchange for money to pay for college. Although these products mirror student loans in most respects, ISA backers frequently claim that these financial products are neither credit nor debt, suggesting they are allowed to sidestep consumer financial protections that have been in effect for decades or centuries. 

 

This series will attempt to answer major questions confronting policymakers and regulators, including: How are ISAs governed by existing federal laws that regulate credit and debt? How do laws intended to ensure fair lending and prohibit discrimination apply to ISAs? How do state consumer laws — and by extension state attorneys general, financial regulators, and individual borrowers — interact with these products?