State attorneys general around the country are stepping up their scrutiny of college lending practices in the absence of federal enforcement action, following a pattern that experts say has prevailed in some other major consumer investigations in recent years.
Yesterday the attorneys general of Illinois and Missouri announced that as a result of investigations into lending practices at three major universities in those states, the universities had agreed to adopt a code of conduct to guide their relations with student lenders.
The code will be modeled on one developed by Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo of New York, who has been looking into student loan practices for months and who said in an interview that similar investigative efforts were snowballing around the country.
