Jeanne D’Arc Now Helps Employees Pay Student Loans
This new benefit for CU employees is aimed at helping relieve the rising burden of student loan payments on recent graduates.
The U.S. economy is creating record numbers of jobs and the unemployment is at historic lows, pushing employers to find innovative ways to attract and retain good employees.
At Jeanne D’Arc Credit Union in Lowell, Mass., the solution now includes offering to cover part of the student loans of employees.
Jeanne D’Arc ($1.4 billion in assets, 87,961 members) announced Wednesday that it is offering Gradifi’s Student Loan PayDown Program to the credit union’s employees.
Through the program, the credit union will make direct monthly payments of $125 to employees’ student loan accounts, paying up to $10,000 on each participant’s loan. To be eligible, an employee must work at the credit union full time for six months.
Americans owed nearly $1.6 trillion for student loans as of September 2018, up from $577.4 million in September 2007, the eve of the Great Recession, according the Federal Reserve.
In 2016, college graduates who had student loans owed an average of $32,731 with a monthly payment of nearly $400. Studies also indicate that the burden of student loans cause borrowers to hold off on other life events, such as purchasing a home, getting married or starting a family.
Jeanne D’Arc had 203 full-time employees as of September 2018. It also offers private student loans to members, and had $20 million in private student loans in its $1.2 billion loan portfolio as of September, according to NCUA data.
“Many of our dedicated employees have the obligation of paying student loans, and we understand the impact this may have on their financial lives,” said Mark S. Cochran, Jeanne D’Arc’s president/CEO. “Each day, we help our members work toward financial success, and our new Student Loan PayDown Program allows us to do the same for our employees.”
Boston-based Gradifi, which developed the PayDown platform, was founded in 2014 and is a subsidiary of First Republic Bank of San Francisco.
First Republic began using the platform in 2016, and bought Gradifi in December 2016 for an undisclosed amount. At the time, Gradifi’s clients included small businesses to PricewaterhouseCoopers, Natixis Global Asset Management, and Penguin Random House.