WASHINGTON — Financial products offered to students on theircollege campuses are often less competitive compared to what'savailable to the general public, according to a Consumer FinancialProtection Bureau analysis of financial products marketed oncollege campuses.

“Trust in higher education can be undermined when schools arenot careful about whom they partner with to provide their studentswith financial products and services,” CFPB Director RichardCordray said Monday at a Banking on Campus Forum in Washington,D.C.

“We are distressed to hear that some students feel pressured touse specific products and may be unaware that when they sign up forthose products their schools are secretly making money,” Cordraysaid.

The CFPB released a “Request for Information” in February tolearn about the offers available to students on college campuses through banksand credit unions.

“Our goal was to engage with the higher education communityabout how they structure their marketing partnerships withfinancial institutions,” Cordray said.

Institutions of higher education have partnered with creditunions and banks for offers including private loans, credit cards,loans under the now-discontinued Federal Family Educational Loanprogram and checking accounts.

The CFPB found that “little information is available aboutwhether codes of conduct exist at schools with productpartnerships.”

The responses to the CFPB's Federal Register noticealso “did not indicate whether schools with financial productpartnerships restrict the acceptance of gifts by employees andagents.”

The CFPB wants to further explore how “colleges and universitiescan better use their bargaining power to negotiate product termsand conditions that are more competitive than products available tothe general public,” CFPB's student loan ombudsman, Rohit Chopra,said at the forum.

He also said the CFPB wants to find better ways to help studentsshop for debit, checking or prepaid card products.

Officials from the Department of Education, a representativefrom the attorney general of New York's office and college studentsalso addressed the forum.