17:16ZZ-9 Prohibited actions.

9. No student loan servicer shall:

a. directly or indirectly employ any scheme, device or artifice to defraud or mislead student loan borrowers;

b. engage in any unfair or deceptive practice toward any person or misrepresent or omit any material information in connection with the servicing of a student education loan, including, but not limited to, misrepresenting the amount, nature or terms of any fee or payment due or claimed to be due on a student education loan, the terms and conditions of the loan agreement or the borrower's obligations under the loan;

c. obtain property by fraud or misrepresentation;

d. misapply student education loan payments to the outstanding balance of a student education loan;

e. provide inaccurate information to a credit bureau, thereby harming a student loan borrower's creditworthiness;

f. fail to report both the favorable and unfavorable payment history of the student loan borrower to a nationally recognized consumer credit bureau at least annually if the student loan servicer regularly reports information to a credit bureau;

g. refuse to communicate with an authorized representative of the student loan borrower who provides a written authorization signed by the student loan borrower, provided the student loan servicer may adopt procedures reasonably related to verifying that the representative is in fact authorized to act on behalf of the student loan borrower;

h. make any false statement or knowingly and willfully make any omission of a material fact in connection with any information or reports filed with a governmental agency or in connection with any investigation conducted by the commissioner or another governmental agency;

i. fail to respond within 15 business days to communications from the Department of Banking and Insurance, or within such shorter, reasonable period of time as may be requested by the department; or

j. fail to respond within 15 business days to a consumer complaint submitted to the student loan servicer by the department. If necessary, the student loan servicer may request additional time to respond to the complaint, up to a maximum of 45 business days, provided that the request is accompanied by an explanation on why additional time is reasonable and necessary.

L.2019, c.200, s.9.