Finance

More companies are choosing to offer a 401(k) plan match to workers who are paying off their student loans.
A recent law, Secure 2.0, allowed employers to essentially treat student loan payments like a 401(k) contribution for the purposes of offering a match, starting in 2024.
Large companies such as Kraft, Workday, News Corp., and Comcast are early adopters.
Most employers are not yet offering or planning to offer the benefit, though.

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Companies can now offer their workers a “match” on their student loan payments in the form of a contribution to their 401(k) plan — and a small but growing number of employers are taking advantage of the option.
Traditionally, companies have only paid a 401(k) match to workers based on their voluntary contributions to the workplace retirement plan. A worker choosing to save 3% of their annual pay in a 401(k) might get a 3% match from their employer, for example.

Now, companies can treat a worker’s student loan payments like an elective 401(k) plan contribution.
Federal law allows employers to give a match based on a worker’s payments toward student debt. Workers generally don’t have to contribute to the 401(k) plan to qualify for the funds.
The measure, part of a package of retirement changes dubbed Secure 2.0, kicked in starting in 2024.

Kraft, Workday among companies adding the benefit

The policy’s goal is to help workers tackle two competing financial obligations: paying down debt and simultaneously saving for retirement.
More than 100 companies have implemented the benefit to date, covering almost 1.5 million eligible employees, according to data from Fidelity, the nation’s largest 401(k) plan administrator.

They include “some of the largest firms in the U.S.,” such as Kraft, Workday and News Corp., Jesse Moore, senior vice president and head of student debt at Fidelity, said in an e-mail.
“Many more [are] showing strong interest in offering it in 2025,” Moore said.

About 5% of employers have already added the benefit, according to forthcoming survey results from Alight, one of the largest U.S. retirement plan administrators.
An additional 12% of employers say they are “very likely” to adopt it in 2025, while 29% are “moderately likely” to do so, according to Alight. It polled 122 employers, with a total of 11 million workers, in September.
Interest in the benefit has grown largely due to Secure 2.0, Rob Austin, head of thought leadership at Alight, said in an e-mail.

Financial help and worker retention

Comcast is among the employers adding a student loan-401(k) match benefit in 2025. A Comcast spokesperson said offering the benefit will help workers “manage their long-term financial wellness” in a tax-efficient way.
About 90,000 U.S. employees are eligible for the match, on up to 6% of their eligible annual earnings, the spokesperson said.
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Some companies also see the match program as a way to attract and retain college graduates in competitive fields, experts said.
“We’ve heard from many employees that they struggle with student loans,” especially those early in their careers, the Comcast spokesperson said. “We’re trying to build a value proposition that meets [workers’] needs.”
The student loan measure is also available to companies that sponsor other types of workplace retirement plans, such as 403(b) or governmental 457(b) plans or SIMPLE IRAs, according to the Internal Revenue Service.

How the student loan benefit works

Thomas Barwick

The maximum amount of “qualified student loan payments” is generally the annual salary deferral, or contribution, limit, according to Brian Dobbis, retirement solutions lead at Lord Abbett, a money manager. That 401(k) limit is $23,000 in 2024 for workers under age 50.
Here’s a general example: A 30-year-old participates in a 401(k) plan in 2024. The worker chooses to contribute $18,000 to the plan. If they also pay $8,000 toward their student loans that year, only $5,000 ($23,000 minus $18,000) of those repayments is eligible to be matched, Dobbis said.
The worker’s ultimate match amount is dictated by employers’ respective match cap, commonly set around 3% to 6% of a worker’s annual salary.
Of course, companies may structure the benefit somewhat differently from one another.

Companies had the benefit prior to Secure 2.0

Employers had begun offering a 401(k)-linked student loan benefit even before Secure 2.0.
Abbott, a health-care technology company, has provided a similar benefit since 2018, through its “Freedom 2 Save” program, which was thought to be the first of its kind. The company secured a private letter ruling from the IRS to be able to do so.
More companies have followed since.
In 2022, for example, about 1% of all 401(k) plans were offering or planned to offer a match based on student loan payments, according to an annual survey by the Plan Sponsor Council of America, a trade group. By 2023, that share had increased to about 2%, according to the group’s latest poll, of 709 employers, set to be published this month.

“Pharmaceutical companies are among the earliest adopters, most likely because Abbott pioneered this idea, and competitors followed,” said Austin of Alight.
The share jumped most — to almost 5% in 2023 from 2% in 2022 — among the largest firms, or those with more than 5,000 employees, PSCA found.
It seems there has been “increased interest” among firms with a big cohort of college-educated workers, said Hattie Greenan, PSCA’s research director.
“We will continue to see this number slowly increase as those companies look for ways to differentiate their benefits packages to compete for top talent, and as some of the administrative complexities are worked out,” Greenan said.

Why many firms aren’t adding a student loan match

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However, most companies are still sitting on the sidelines.
For example, 55% of employers say they are “not at all likely” to add the provision in 2025, according to Alight’s survey.
There are a few reasons businesses may not want to implement the measure, said Ellen Lander, founder of Renaissance Benefit Advisors Group, based in Pearl River, New York.

For one, employers may already offer a different education benefit to their workforce. Further, companies, especially those with many higher earners, may not feel they need the benefit if there isn’t evidence of lagging 401(k) participation even among those with student debt, she said.
Some employers may already make a non-elective contribution to workers each year, such as a profit-sharing contribution, even to workers who don’t participate in the company 401(k), Lander said.
Lander said one of her clients viewed the student loan policy as “unfair,” since it applied to only a certain subset of workers, i.e., those with student debt.
She said none of her clients have yet chosen to adopt it.
“I would hope every client is discussing it with their consultant,” Lander said. “To me, it’s something you should definitely consider. And then you need to get into the weeds: Do you need it?”
Disclosure: Comcast owns CNBC parent company NBCUniversal. More

Fed Chair Jerome Powell said Wednesday he isn’t worried that President-elect Donald Trump will try to politicize the central bank once he takes office in January.
There are safeguards in the congressional legislation that created the central bank that will help preserve it from political influences, he said during an appearance in New York.
Powell provided no clues as to which way he’s leaning on the near-term path for interest rates, though he did note that the Fed can afford to be cautious because of the strength of the U.S. economy.

Jerome Powell, chairman of the US Federal Reserve, right, speaks during the New York Times DealBook Summit at Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York, US, on Wednesday, Dec. 4, 2024. 
Yuki Iwamura | Bloomberg | Getty Images

NEW YORK — Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said Wednesday he isn’t worried President-elect Donald Trump will try to politicize the central bank once he takes office in January.
The question of Fed independence has come up over the past several months, amid reports that Trump may try to pull strings on monetary policy both by legislation and possibly by installing a “shadow chair” who could undermine Powell’s authority.

However, Powell said there are safeguards in the congressional legislation that created the Fed that will help preserve it from political influences.
“What does independent mean? It means we can make our decisions without them being reversed,” he told CNBC’s Andrew Ross Sorkin during an on-stage interview at the New York Times’ DealBook Summit.
“That gives us the ability to make these decisions for the benefit of all Americans at all times, not for any particular political party or political outcome,” he added. “We’re supposed to achieve maximum employment and price stability for the benefit of all Americans and keep it out of the politics completely.”
Powell provided no clues as to which way he’s leaning on the near-term path for interest rates, though he did note that the Fed can afford to be cautious. As he has said before, Powell said the U.S. economy is “the envy of other large economies around the world,” which affords the Fed the ability to be patient as it contemplates future rate moves.
The Fed’s next rate decision comes in two weeks. Markets are placing about a 75% probability that the Federal Open Market Committee will cut its key borrowing rate by a quarter percentage point. The expectation is that the Fed then skips the January meeting before cutting a few more times in 2025.

During his first stint in office, Trump hurled sharp criticism at the Fed and Powell, whom he nominated. In the months leading up to this year’s election, Trump advocated for allowing the president a say when the the central bank is making decisions on interest rates.
Though many presidents have tried to exert influence over the Fed, Trump was the most public about it. Still, Powell said he believes there’s strong support in Congress to keep the Fed’s decision-making apart from the political swirl in Washington.
“I think there is very, very broad support for that set of ideas in Congress in both political parties on both sides of the Hill, and that’s what really matters,” he said. “It’s the law of the land, and I’m not concerned that there’s some risk that we would lose our statutory independence.”
The Trump transition team did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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Police stand guard in front of the main gate of the National Assembly in Seoul on December 3, 2024, after South Korea’s President Yoon Suk Yeol declared emergency martial law. South Korea President Yoon on December 3 declared emergency martial law, saying the step was necessary to protect the country from “communist forces” amid parliamentary wrangling over a budget bill.
Jung Yeon-je | Afp | Getty Images

South Korean stocks swung wildly in the U.S. on Tuesday amid a day of political upheaval in Korea after President Yoon Suk Yeol was forced to lift an earlier emergency martial law decree, raising fears of instability in the world’s 13th-largest economy.
The iShares MSCI South Korea ETF (EWY), which tracks more than 90 large and mid-sized companies in South Korea, tumbled as much as 7% to hit a 52-week low. Later in the day, the ETF cut losses and closed Tuesday down 1.6% after Yoon said he would lift the emergency declaration following the National Assembly’s vote to overturn his martial law decree.

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The ETF is still on pace for its fifth straight negative day with unusually heavy trading volume. Over 35 million shares have changed hands so far Tuesday, more than 10 times its 30-day average volume.
U.S.-traded shares of Korean companies were off their session lows. Korea Electric Power’s American depositary receipts (ADRs) dropped more than 2%, and Korean e-commerce giant Coupang shed 3.7%. KT Corp., formerly Korea Telecom, saw shares fall less than 1%. Posco, a South Korean steel manufacturer, declined more than 4%.
Within three hours of Yoon declaring martial law late Tuesday night, 190 out of the 300 National Assembly lawmakers gathered to overturn the emergency order.

South Korea’s main opposition Democratic Party’s staff set up a barricade to block soldiers at the National Assembly after South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol declared martial law in Seoul, South Korea, December 3, 2024. 
Yonhap | Via Reuters

The president accused opposition parties of sympathizing with North Korea and controlling parliament. Yoon did not specify how martial law — a temporary rule by military authorities in a time of emergency — would affect governance and democracy in the country.
“The Administration is in contact with the ROK government and is monitoring the situation closely,” said the White House National Security Council in a statement to NBC News.

Under the martial law declaration, all political activities and acts that “incite social disorder” are prohibited. This is the first time since 1980 that a South Korean leader has issued a martial law declaration.
The Korea Exchange announced early Wednesday morning that the stock market would begin trading as normal at 9 a.m. KST.
The U.S. dollar was last higher by about 0.9% against the South Korean won Tuesday.

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News of Donald Trump Jr. joining the board of PSQ Holdings drove a rally in its shares.
The company owns the online marketplace PublicSquare.

Donald Trump Jr. speaks with the media at the end of the debate between Republican vice presidential nominee U.S. Senator JD Vance (R-OH) and Democratic vice presidential nominee Minnesota Governor Tim Walz hosted by CBS in New York, U.S., October 1, 2024. 
Brendan Mcdermid | Reuters

News of Donald Trump Jr. joining the board of PSQ Holdings sent shares of the owner of the online marketplace PublicSquare skyrocketing on Tuesday.
The stock surged 270.4% to $7.63 after the company announced that the eldest son of President-elect Donald Trump is joining PSQ’s board. Bloomberg News reported on the move earlier Tuesday.

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PublicSquare is a commerce and payments company with a focus on “life, family, and liberty.” PSQ is a microcap stock with a market capitalization of only $72 million as of Monday’s close.
“Don has been an investor in PublicSquare since before our IPO,” Michael Seifert, chairman and CEO of PublicSquare, said in a statement. “Don’s passion for creating a ‘cancel-proof’ economy, his years of strategic business experience, and his leadership within the shooting sports industry offer important expertise at the board level.”
For the September quarter, the firm had net revenue of $6.5 million and operating losses of more than $14 million. West Palm Beach, Florida-based PSQ is a 16-minute drive from Mar-a-Lago, the president-elect’s primary residence.
“With a rapidly growing marketplace and payments ecosystem, PublicSquare has a distinct position in the market based on the core tenets of our nation’s founding, paired with a results-driven management team,” Trump Jr. said in a statement. “The American people have affirmed the importance of liberty, and PublicSquare is at the forefront of this movement.”
Just last week, Trump Jr. joined the board of Unusual Machines, a small U.S. drone and drone component maker, sending its shares up as much as 100% on the day of the announcement.

In November, Trump Jr. joined venture capital firm 1789 Capital as a partner. The firm invests in products and companies aimed at conservatives and its investments include Tucker Carlson’s media company. 
PSQ director Kelly Loeffler, a former U.S. senator from Georgia, bought 1.2 million shares of the payments company on Oct. 24 for about $3.25 million, according to a regulatory filing. Her stake increased in value drastically with Tuesday’s rally.

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The deal, which is expected to close in mid-2025, comes during a boom for the private credit space.
The transaction also creates “an integrated private credit franchise” with about $220 billion in assets, per BlackRock. HPS manages about $148 billion in assets.

BlackRock said Tuesday it will acquire HPS Investment Partners for $12 billion in stock, as the world’s largest asset manager looks to grow its presence in the highly popular private credit space.
“We have always sought to position ourselves ahead of our clients’ needs. Together with the scale, capabilities, and expertise of the HPS team, BlackRock will deliver clients solutions that seamlessly blend public and private,” CEO Larry Fink said in a statement.

The deal, which is expected to close in mid-2025, comes during a boom for the private credit space. Comparable publicly traded companies to HPS such as Blue Owl Capital and Ares are up 54.6% and 46%, respectively, for 2024. Those gains are well ahead of BlackRock’s 25.7% year-to-date gain.
The transaction also creates “an integrated private credit franchise” with about $220 billion in assets, per BlackRock. HPS manages about $148 billion in assets. BlackRock oversees $11.5 trillion as of the third quarter.
Sources told CNBC that HPS first sought to go public, which caught BlackRock’s attention as it looks to grow its alternative assets business. BlackRock earlier this year announced it would acquire Global Infrastructure Partners and private market data provider Preqin for $12.5 billion and $3.2 billion, respectively.
The deal is also expected to raise BlackRock’s private market AUM and management fees by 40% and roughly 35%, respectively.
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Banks that issue credit cards used by millions of consumers raised interest rates and introduced new fees in response to an impending regulation that most experts believe will never take effect.
Synchrony and Bread Financial have said that the moves were necessary after the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in March announced a rule slashing what the industry can charge in late fees.
Other banks, including Barclays and Citigroup, also boosted the interest rates on their store cards.

A customer uses a credit card to pay for items January 28, 2022 at a retail shop in New York City. 
Robert Nickelsberg | Getty Images

Banks that issue credit cards used by millions of consumers raised interest rates and introduced new fees over the past year in response to an impending regulation that most experts now believe will never take effect.
Synchrony and Bread Financial, which specialize in issuing branded cards for companies including Verizon and JCPenney, have said that the moves were necessary after the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau announced a rule slashing what the industry can charge in late fees.

“They’re the two banks that have been most vocal about it, because they were going to be the most impacted by it,” said Sanjay Sakhrani, a KBW analyst who covers the card industry. “The consensus now, however, is that the rule isn’t going to happen.”
The effect is that proposed regulation intended to save consumers money has instead resulted in higher costs for some.
On Nov. 22, CNBC reported that rates on a wide swath of retail cards have jumped in the past year, reaching as high as 35.99%. Synchrony and Bread raised the annual percentage rates, or APRs, on their portfolios by an average of 3 to 5 percentage points, according to Sakhrani.
On top of that, customers of the two banks have been given notice of new monthly fees of between $1.99 and $2.99 for receiving paper statements.

Arrows pointing outwards

Customers of Synchrony bank have received notices for new monthly fees for receiving paper statements, part of the industry’s response to a CFPB rule capping late fees.
Source: Synchrony

Bread, which issues cards for retailers including Big Lots and Victoria’s Secret, began boosting the rate on some of its cards in late 2023 “in anticipation” of the CFPB rule, Bread CFO Perry Beberman told analysts in October.

“We’ve implemented a number of changes that are in market, including the APR increases and paper statement fees,” Beberman said at the time.

Some pain, no gain

The CFPB says the credit card industry profits off borrowers with low credit scores by charging them onerous penalties.
In March, the agency introduced a rule to cap late fees at $8 per incident, down from an average of about $32. The rule would save consumers $10 billion annually, the regulator said.
But banks and their trade groups have argued that late fees are a necessary deterrent to default and that capping them at $8 per incident would shift costs to those who pay their bills on time.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which calls itself the world’s largest trade group, sued the CFPB in March to halt the rule, arguing that the agency exceeded its authority. In May, days before the rule was set to take effect, a federal judge granted the industry’s request to halt its implementation.
While the rule is currently held up in courts, card users are already dealing with the higher borrowing costs and fees attributed to the regulation.
The higher APRs kick in for new loans, not old debts, meaning the impact to consumers will rise in coming months as they accumulate fresh debts to fund holiday spending. Americans owe a record $1.17 trillion on their cards, 8.1% higher than a year ago, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
“Due to changes in regulatory conditions, we adjusted rates and fees to ensure that we can continue to provide safe and convenient credit to our customers,” said a spokeswoman for Stamford, Connecticut-based Synchrony.
Customers can avoid interest and fees by paying off balances in full and opting out of paper statements, the spokeswoman said.

Citigroup, Barclays

The surge in borrowing costs will have a bigger impact on consumers with lower credit scores who are more likely to have store cards issued by Synchrony and Bread.
Customers with poorer credit may be considered too risky to qualify for popular rewards cards from issuers including JPMorgan Chase and American Express, and are therefore more likely to turn to co-branded cards as alternatives.
That’s why Synchrony and Bread were eager to mitigate the hit to their operations by increasing rates and introducing fees, according to analysts. The concern was that more of their customers would simply default on loans if late penalties shrank to $8, and the profitability of their businesses would take a dive.
But other, larger banks have moved rates higher as well.
Cards from Banana Republic and Athleta issued by Barclays each saw an APR jump of 5 percentage points in the past year. The Home Depot card from Citigroup had a rise of 3 percentage points, while the bank raised the APR on its Meijer card by 4 percentage points.
Citigroup and Barclays representatives declined to comment.

Capital One, which had warned earlier in the year that it would take steps to offset the hit from the CFPB rule, said that instead of changing its customer pricing it opted to hold back on making certain unspecified investments. The bank is in the process of acquiring rival card issuer Discover Financial.
Even before it was set to take effect in May, the fate of the CFPB rule was considered murky, because litigation fighting it was filed in a venue widely seen as favorable to corporations seeking to beat back federal regulation.
But after the election victory of Donald Trump, who has broadly pushed for deregulation across industries, the expectation is that the next CFPB head isn’t likely to keep the effort alive, according to policy experts.
When asked if they would reverse the higher APRs and fees if the CFPB rule went away, Synchrony managers were noncommittal. The bank has to proceed as though it were happening, CFO Brian Wenzel told analysts in October.
“People use the term ‘rollback,'” Wenzel said. “As a company, we haven’t spent any real time thinking about that.”
— CNBC’s Gabrielle Fonrouge contributed to this report. More

Parents can add a child as an authorized user to their credit card account to help build a kid’s credit history and credit score.
The strategy is generally best for kids in their later teenage years, maybe around 16 years old, or those in their early 20s, experts said.
Parents may want to set certain parameters like spending restrictions and an end date, experts said.

Images By Tang Ming Tung | Digitalvision | Getty Images

Parents who want to help jumpstart their kid’s credit score and credit history can take one fairly easy step, money experts say: Add your child as an authorized user to your credit card account.
The goal is to have a child build credit from a relatively early age by piggybacking off their parent’s — i.e., the primary account holder’s — good credit.

The strategy is generally best for kids in their later teenage years, maybe around 16 years old, or even those in their early 20s, said Ted Rossman, a senior industry analyst at CreditCards.com.

Parents can think of it as a “stepping stone” to building credit, he said.
“It’s gotten harder to establish credit in your own name, and this is one of the tools to get around that,” said Rossman. “It can really help a lot.”
Allowing kids to use a credit card — and showing them how to pay off the debt responsibly — can also “help them learn healthy credit card management skills early on,” said Andrea Woroch, a consumer finance expert.

Why building credit is important

Things to consider

Mihailomilovanovic | E+ | Getty Images

Parents should only try this authorized user strategy if they themselves have good credit, experts said.
“As long as you pay your bill on time and don’t carry a hefty balance each month, your child will benefit from your positive credit history and credit score, helping them to establish and build credit,” Woroch said.
They should also ideally have an end date in mind.
Perhaps for one to three years, depending on the circumstances, Rossman explained.
Importantly, this would not be a joint account. Legally, the primary accountholder is responsible for all the authorized user’s transactions — meaning a parent is on the hook if their kid misuses a credit card, perhaps by overspending or failing to pay their bill on time and in full each month, he said.

Parents can set spending limits for authorized users, depending on their card provider, experts said.
That means setting a relatively low credit allowance, maybe just enough for the teen to fill up their car’s gasoline tank or go to the movies a few times each month, they said.
Parents don’t even have to give the card to their kids at all.
“The credit benefits actually translate whether they use the card or not,” Rossman said.
Ultimately, parents should make sure they “set clear rules and boundaries as to if and how they can use the card,” Woroch said. More