The Senate has voted to confirm Frank Bisignano as the new commissioner of the Social Security Administration, ushering in new leadership at a federal agency that has already undergone many changes this year under the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency.

Bisignano, the chairman and CEO of payments and financial technology company Fiserv Inc., was nominated to serve as Social Security commissioner in December by then President-elect Donald Trump. Trump started his second term on Jan. 20.

The Social Security Administration, which provides monthly benefit checks to more than 73 million beneficiaries, is currently operating under temporary leadership. Acting commissioner Leland Dudek took the helm in February, replacing Michelle King, who stepped down from the temporary role due to concerns about DOGE’s access to sensitive data.

A federal judge has since granted a preliminary injunction that prevents DOGE from accessing personally identifiable information including Social Security numbers, medical records, addresses, bank records, tax information and other sensitive data.

Bisignano’s confirmation vote on Tuesday was divided by party lines. Prior to the vote, Republicans had expressed support for Trump’s nominee, while Democrats raised concerns about Bisignano’s prospective leadership and his alleged ties to DOGE.

More from Personal Finance:
Social Security reduces benefit clawback rate
Trump administration restarts student loan collections
What experts say about claiming Social Security benefits early

On the eve of the Senate confirmation vote, Democrats including Sens. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Ron Wyden of Oregon held a rally outside the Senate building to oppose Bisignano’s nomination.

“We want Donald Trump to stand with working families and seniors and stop the attack on Social Security once and for all,” Wyden, ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee, said at the Monday event.

Following the Tuesday Senate vote, advocacy groups expressed concern about the new agency leadership.

“This vote was an opportunity for the Senate to reject the decimation of Social Security, and demand that Trump nominate a commissioner who will stop the bleeding,” Nancy Altman, president of Social Security Works, said in a statement. “Instead, every Senate Republican just signed off on the DOGE destruction of Social Security.”

Neither Fiserv nor the White House responded to CNBC’s requests for comment by press time.

Bisignano currently serves as chairman and CEO of Fiserv, which processes more than $2.5 trillion in payments per day, according to his Senate testimony.

Bisignano came to that role after serving as chairman and CEO of First Data Corp., which went public in 2015 and combined with Fiserv in 2019.

Before that, Bisignano was co-chief operating officer for JPMorgan Chase and CEO of its mortgage banking unit. Prior to JPMorgan Chase, he held several roles at Citigroup.

Bisignano was raised in a working class, multigenerational immigrant household in Brooklyn, New York, according to his Senate testimony. Bisignano’s father was a 46-year Department of Treasury employee who worked in customs enforcement.

“He was the hardest working person I’ve known,” Bisignano said in his Senate testimony. “I view federal workers from that vantage point.”

Warren and Wyden sent a letter to Bisignano ahead of his March confirmation hearing to ask about his views on privatizing the agency. The efforts by DOGE to “hollow out” the agency and “deprive Americans of Social Security benefits they earned and need” may pave the way for a “private sector fix,” the Democratic leaders said.

In his Senate testimony, Bisignano said he did not intend to privatize the agency.

“I’ve never thought about privatizing,” Bisignano said. “It’s not a word that anybody’s ever talked to me about. I don’t see this institution as anything other than a government agency that gets run for the American public.”

During the Senate hearing, Bisignano also faced questions about his involvement with recent changes at the Social Security Administration and with DOGE.

Wyden introduced an anonymous whistleblower letter from a “senior Social Security Administration employee who recently left the agency,” who said Bisignano had been briefed on “key SSA operations, personnel and management decisions.”

In response to a question about whether he would “lock DOGE out,” Bisignano promised to protect personally identifiable information.

“I am going to do whatever is required to protect the information that is private,” Bisignano said.

However, during a February CNBC interview, Bisignano said he is “fundamentally a DOGE person.”

While Democrats have cast doubt on Bisignano’s nomination, the Fiserv CEO has received praise from Republicans and former Citigroup CEO Sandy Weill.

In a March CNBC interview, Weill praised Bisignano as a “great manager” and “terrific person.”

“He used to work for me, and I think he’s the best operations person I’ve ever met in my life,” Weill said, adding we would be “very lucky to have him in that job.”

During a March Senate confirmation hearing, as he fielded questions from senators on a host of issues facing the Social Security Administration, Bisignano said it will be important to “put the beneficiaries first.”

“The ability to receive payments on time and accurately is job one,” Bisignano said.

Among the priorities Bisignano said he would emphasize if confirmed include bringing the Social Security’s error rate down, citing an Office of the Inspector General report that put it at around 1%.

“That’s a very high payment processing error rate,” Bisignano said, calling it “five decimal places too high.”

Reducing the agency’s error rate will help eliminate overpayment issues, where beneficiaries receive too much money in their benefit checks. Those errors, which may take months or years to catch, typically leave beneficiaries owing large sums to the Social Security Administration.

From fiscal years 2015 through 2022, the Social Security Administration paid about $71.8 billion in improper payments out of almost $8.6 trillion in benefits, representing about 0.84%, according to a 2024 Office of the Inspector General report.

The agency is currently in the process of adjusting the default withholding rate to 50% for certain benefits affected by overpayments, such as retirement, survivors and disability insurance. Under President Joe Biden, the default rate had been lowered to 10% of monthly benefits or $10, whichever was greater.

“I’m going to make sure that we recover all the money we should recover, but on the other hand we have to be humans in the process, too,” Bisignano told the Senate about overpayment clawbacks.

Bisignano also said he planned to reduce the chronically long wait times Americans face when seeking help from the agency, including when calling its 800 number or when applying for disability benefits.

Having to wait for more than 20 minutes on the phone is not acceptable, Bisignano said. Social Security Administration data shows only about 46% of calls get answered, likely because people get discouraged and hang up, he said.

“I think we could get that to under a minute,” Bisignano said of the agency’s phone wait times, in part by making AI available to people answering the phones to more quickly prompt them with the information they need to answer individuals’ queries.

Bisignano also promised to investigate why it takes so much time to process disability applications. Initial eligibility determinations currently take around seven months, a wait time that has doubled since prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, according to the Urban Institute.

The Trump administration resumed collection efforts on defaulted student loans Monday after a roughly five-year hiatus — and affected borrowers could begin feeling the financial consequences sooner than experts expected.

The U.S. Department of Education released new details on what actions it plans to take, when.

Here’s what to know.

The Treasury Department will send notices to 5.3 million defaulted borrowers about the collection activity of their wages “later this summer,” the Education Department wrote in the Monday press release.

“Borrowers should pay back the debts they take on,” said U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon in a video posted on X on April 22.

The U.S. government has extraordinary collection powers on federal debts and it can seize borrowers’ federal tax refunds, wages, and Social Security retirement and disability benefits.

But in the past, student loan borrowers were usually given 65 days’ notice before the garnishment of their federal benefits, said higher education expert Mark Kantrowitz.

“Odd that they say a 30-day notice,” Kantrowitz said.

Historically, the offsets to people’s retirement and disability benefits were also “a last resort,” Kantrowitz said, “occurring a year after wage garnishment and other attempts at collection had failed.”

“Given the timing, it sounds like they are not pursuing the normal due diligence schedule for collecting defaulted federal student loans,” Kantrowitz added.

Borrowers in default will receive emails making them aware of the new policy, the Education Department said. You can contact the government’s Default Resolution Group and pursue a number of different avenues to get current on your loans, including enrolling in an income-driven repayment plan or signing up for loan rehabilitation. 

Some borrowers may also be eligible for deferments or a forbearance, which are different ways to pause your payments, Rodriguez said.

“We’re advising clients to request a retroactive forbearance to cover missed payments, and a temporary forbearance until they can get enrolled in an income-driven repayment plan,” she said.

Are you at risk of collection activity because you’re behind on your student loans? If you’re willing to share your experience for an upcoming story, please email me at [email protected]

On the heels of a stronger-than-expected jobs report and elevated inflation readings, the Federal Reserve is expected to hold interest rates steady at the end of its two-day meeting this week — despite pressure from President Donald Trump.

“Consumers have been waiting for years to see pricing come down. NO INFLATION, THE FED SHOULD LOWER ITS RATE!!!” Trump said in a Truth Social post Friday.

As an independent agency, the central bank has always operated autonomously from the White House. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell has repeatedly said that monetary policy decisions are completely separate from politics. At the same time, the president’s new trade policies are a barrier to cutting rates, in part because economists expect the new tariffs could lead to a widespread rise in prices that complicate inflation forecasts.

To be sure, many Americans are getting squeezed by high prices and high borrowing costs, while the potential inflation impacts from a costly trade war weigh heavily on household budgets.

“Consumers are always the ones who pay the price,” said Eugenio Aleman, chief economist at Raymond James.

More from Personal Finance:
What experts say about selling gold jewelry for cash
What typically happens to stocks after periods of high volatility
Why tariffs will hurt low income Americans more than rich

The federal funds rate sets what banks charge each other for overnight lending, but also affects many of the borrowing and savings rates consumers see every day.

“Uncertainty rules amid a trade war and the ever-changing landscape of tariffs,” said Greg McBride, Bankrate’s chief financial analyst. “But with the hard data on consumer spending and employment still hanging in there, the Fed will remain firmly planted on the sidelines.”

Markets now widely expect the Fed to wait to cut rates until July, with two or three more reductions to follow by the end of the year.

Once the federal funds rate comes down, borrowing costs could decrease across a variety of consumer debt, such as auto loans, credit cards and mortgage rates, making it easier to access cheaper money. 

Here’s a breakdown of how it works.

Most credit cards have a variable rate, so there’s a direct connection to the Fed’s benchmark.

For the most part, the average annual percentage rate has hovered just over 20% this year, according to Bankrate, not far from last year’s all-time high. 

The Fed holding steady isn’t the only thing keeping credit card rates high. “Banks are nervous about all of the uncertainty in the economy and what it means for consumers,” said Matt Schulz, chief credit analyst at LendingTree.

“When that happens, banks try to minimize risk as much as possible, and one of the ways they do that is to raise interest rates on credit cards,” he said.

Credit card debt continues to be a pain point for consumers struggling to keep up with high prices. Total credit card debt and average balances are also at record highs.

Although 15- and 30-year mortgage rates are largely tied to Treasury yields and the economy, concerns about the direction of the economic policy and Trump’s tariff plans have been a drag on rates, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.

The average rate for a 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage is now 6.81%, down from 7.04% at the beginning of the year, according to Bankrate. But for potential home buyers, that’s not enough of a decline to give the housing market a boost.

“Unfortunately for those shopping for a home this summer, rates are likely to stay in or around that range in the near future,” Schulz said.

Although auto loan rates have seen little change, car payments have gone up because prices are rising, while Trump’s 25% tariffs of imported vehicles adds more pressure.

Currently, the average rate on a five-year new car loan is 7.33%, down from 7.53% in January, according to Bankrate.

Federal student loan rates are fixed for the life of the loan, so most borrowers are somewhat shielded from Fed moves and recent economic turmoil.

Interest rates for the upcoming school year will be based in part on the May auction of the 10-year Treasury note and aren’t likely to change much. Undergraduate students who took out direct federal student loans for the 2024-25 academic year are paying 6.53%, up from 5.50% in 2023-24.

Although borrowers with existing federal student debt balances won’t see their rates change, many are now facing other headwinds and fewer federal loan forgiveness options.

On the upside, top-yielding online savings accounts still offer above-average returns and currently pay as much as 4.5%, according to Bankrate. While the central bank has no direct influence on deposit rates, the yields tend to be correlated to changes in the target federal funds rate — so holding that rate unchanged has kept savings rates elevated, for now.

“For consumers, oftentimes the best way to protect your finances in times of uncertainty is to double-down on boosting emergency savings and eliminating high interest rate debt,” said Bankrate’s McBride. “This builds a buffer in the event of an income disruption or unanticipated expenses and insulates you from costly borrowing.”

Subscribe to CNBC on YouTube.