One of the immediate challenges that campuses across the country are facing as a result of the spread of the COVID-19 virus is how to move students off campus. This has also led institutions to determine how to issue room and board refunds to residential students who will no longer be utilizing those services. The University of Connecticut is the latest to announce that it will be issuing refunds to its residential students who can no longer call their campus home.

Blackboard’s payments platform, Cashnet, recently won the 2018 Innovation and Excellence Award sponsored by the New England Automated Clearing House (NEACH). The NEACH 2018 Innovation and Excellence Awards showcase outstanding payments products and services to the financial industry and beyond.

At Raleigh, North Carolina’s Shaw University, a number of students have failed to reconcile their tuition balances, and the campus card has been the bearer of bad news for some. Student IDs are being used as a bottleneck at the dining facility to inform students of outstanding balances.

BadgePass, Inc. has acquired the business and assets of Boomerang Payment Solutions, LLC, as part of a deal that will bring new financial aid disbursement capabilities to the BadgePass portfolio.

Higher One has announced an agreement to sell all assets and certain liabilities of its Disbursements business — including the OneAccount — to one of its bank partners, Customers Bank and parent company, Customers Bancorp, Inc. The gross purchase price is a reported $37 million cash to be paid in three installments beginning with an initial $17 million paid at closing followed by two $10 million installments in 2017 and 2018.

The U.S. Department of Education has published two regulatory packages as a result of the Department’s proposed Cash Management regulation in May. The new regulations are intended to protect students in the college debit and prepaid card marketplace, as well as add a new income-based repayment plan that would enable more borrowers to limit the amount of their payments to 10% of their income.

Marshall University will end a ten-year relationship with Higher One and begin a new contract with PNC Bank June 1 to issue student refunds. The new relationship with PNC eliminates the multi-function card and gives students a traditional student ID with the option to open an account with PNC.

Financial aid disbursement processes could be significantly affected following the Department of Education regulations. Now BadgePass, along with partner Boomerang Payment Solutions, has added financial aid disbursement capabilities to its TotalCard campus card system.

Under pending new rules from the Department of Education, campuses may have to curb the outsourcing of financial aid disbursement, as well as the provision of financial accounts and payment cards to students. For hundreds of campuses and millions of students, this could mean the end of long-established, convenient methods of rapidly and cost-effectively disbursing and receiving financial aid. For others, it could also mean the end of valued partnerships between banks and campus card programs altogether.

The Department of Education has released its notice of proposed rulemaking for the regulation of title IV and HEA funds, having been working on the negotiated rulemaking process for over a year. The resulting document is a lengthy one at nearly 300 pages, and we will be providing a more in-depth look at the document. In the meantime, here’s the […]