Student Loans Come Due

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Just as the Federal Reserve raises rates and inflation hits a 40-year high, Americans with federal student loan debt will start making payments on the debt after a two-year pause. On Aug. 31, the Department of Education will require 41 million people with student loans to begin paying again. 

According to the Federal Reserve, about one in five Americans have federal student loan debt and they saved $5 billion per month from the forbearance. It’s safe to say that a lot of people are going to struggle to restart those payments again and some of them work for banks.

The good news is that there are new employee programs that can help. One CARES Act provision allowed companies to pay up to $5,250 toward an employee’s student loans without a negative tax hit for the employee. Ally Financial, Fidelity Investments, SoFi Technologies, and First Republic Bank are a few of the many financial companies offering this benefit to employees. First Republic launched its program in 2016, after its purchase of the fintech Gradifi, which helps employers repay their employees’ loans. These programs typically pay between $100 and $200 a month on an employee’s loans, and usually have a cap.

The 2020 Bank Director Compensation Survey shows that 29% of financial institutions offered student loan repayment assistance to some or all employees. Many of those programs discontinued when the student forgiveness program started. In the anticipation of government forbearance coming to a close, now is a good time to think about restarting your program or even developing one. 

Americans now hold $1.59 trillion in student loan debt, according to the Federal Reserve. How did we get here? College got more expensive— much more expensive. 

Earlier this summer, the Federal Reserve and Aspen Institute had a joint summit to discuss household debt and its chilling effect on wealth building. The average cost of college tuition and fees at public 4-year institutions has risen 179.2% over the last 20 years for an average annual increase of 9.0%, according to EducationData.org.

At the same time, wages have not shown much inflation-adjusted growth. ProPublica found in 2018 that the real average wage of workers, after accounting for inflation, has about the same purchasing power it did 40 years ago. And inflation in 2022 has far outpaced wage increases. Some economists speculate that any pandemic-era wage increases are effectively nullified by this rapid inflation.

Not all borrowers are equally impacted. Sixteen percent of graduates will have a debt-to-income ratio of over 20% from their student loans alone, according to the website lendedu.com, while another 28% will have a DTI of over 15%. The 44% of graduates with that level of debt exiting school will face a steep climb to meaningful wealth building. The students that didn’t graduate will have an even harder climb.

Those graduates who struggle with their student loans will be less likely to buy a home or more likely to delay home ownership. They will be less likely to take on business debt or save for retirement. Housing prices have risen in tandem with education prices. The “starter home” of generations past has become unattainable to many millennial and Gen Z debt holders.

More than half of borrowers owe $20,000 or less. Seven percent of people with federal debt owe more than $100,000, according to The Washington Post. Economists at the Federal Reserve say borrowers with the least amount of debt often have difficulty repaying their loans, especially if they didn’t finish their degree. Conversely, people with the highest loan balances are often current on their payments. It’s likely that people with higher loan debt generally have higher education levels and incomes.

The Aspen Institute published a book known as “The Future of Building Wealth: Brief Essays on the Best Ideas to Build Wealth — for Everyone,” in conjunction with the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. It illuminates long-term solutions for financial planning, focusing on policies and programs that could be applied at a national scale. 

In the absence of these national solutions, some employers are taking the matter into their own hands with company policies designed to help employees with student debt. Those banks are making a difference for their own employees and are part of the solution. 

WSFS Financial and LendKey Partner to Refinance Student Debt

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With over $1.4 trillion in total student loan debt in the U.S., refinancing is growing in popularity as young professionals seek to get the lowest rates at manageable payment terms. With upwards of 44 million people currently paying off student loan debt, refinancing is a trend that’s quickly picking up steam.

For banks, this represents a huge opportunity to help their existing customers refinance student loans, as well as attract new ones. But with established fintech players like SoFi and CommonBond already established in the student debt refinancing space, banks are beginning to develop technology-oriented partnerships to compete in a still underserved market.

Consider the case of WSFS Financial Corp., headquartered in Wilmington, Delaware, which has 77 offices in Delaware, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Nevada. In addition to its core banking services, WSFS realized there was an opportunity to expand its consumer lending portfolio to a new generation of customers—mainly students and recent college graduates.

Given this demographic’s average student debt of $35,000, there was an obvious opportunity for the bank to offer a student loan and refinancing product. At the time, however, WSFS lacked the internal technology resources to gain traction in the market. This, in addition to regulatory and compliance hurdles related to the student lending asset class, led WSFS to seek out a technology partner with experience in the student lending space.

The result was a partnership with LendKey, a lending platform and online marketplace that enables consumers to easily refinance their student loans. New York-based LendKey works with over 300 credit union clients, with a combined loan portfolio of over $700 million, to provide technology that enables consumers to find the best refinancing options at their local credit unions.

“We were interested in partnering [with LendKey] because we didn’t really have a student loan program, and they have a very good one, as well as a good delivery method to get to borrowers,” explains Lisa Brubaker, senior vice president and director of retail strategy at WSFS. “It helped fill our product gap.”

With WSFS’s student loan refinancing offerings available on the LendKey marketplace, WSFS was in position to enter the market with an experienced technology partner. LendKey also allowed WSFS to set the credit risk and underwriting standards for all loans, ensuring a balanced lending portfolio. LendKey helped WSFS’s student refinancing program to comply with all regulations. The new venture was launched once the two companies had agreed to team up.

Initially, WSFS relied on its own internal pricing on student loan products, and although its rates and offerings were solid, WSFS had entered the market rather quietly. The promotional support was light, and pricing wasn’t competitive with many other lenders. During the first two years of the program, WSFS generated less than $1 million in total loan disbursements—not the kind of market traction that was hoped for.

What followed next is indicative of what makes WSFS’s partnership with LendKey so innovative and (now) successful. In 2016, WFSF engaged LendKey’s account management team, seeking LendKey’s expertise on how the program could be more visible and competitive, without significantly impacting credit risk. The LendKey team evaluated WSFS’ competitiveness in the student refinancing market and made some recommendations. In response, WSFS repriced its loan program and placed itself prominently on the LendKey Network, a market for lenders to both directly promote and fulfill refinancing loans. With this pivot, WSFS’s refinancing program became more readily available to borrowers in every state within the bank’s market footprint.

Since the repricing and strategic shift to the LendKey Network, WSFS has been experiencing significant success in the student loan refinancing marketplace. WSFS’s student loan portfolio volume has grown by a whopping 54,000 percent since 2013, the year prior to the initiation of the LendKey partnership. And by performing an initial credit check on all applicants, LendKey is helping WSFS make faster decisions on whether to approve individual borrowers.

Today, LendKey continues to work with WSFS to enhance its student lending products, providing additional data analysis and credit risk reporting. LendKey’s insights-driven approach is enabling WSFS to grow its portfolio and reach new customers in a highly competitive marketing—while simultaneously maintaining strong credit risk controls.

“Our view is to take the best-of-breed from marketplace lenders [like LendKey] to deliver to our customers without losing that personal touch that we value,” Brubaker says.