Maryland Attorney General Douglas Gansler is urging the state’s colleges to adopt new regulations on student loans after a national probe of the industry revealed some financial aid officers, including one at the Johns Hopkins University, received kickbacks from lenders.

“We want to make sure that our universities and colleges continue to operate in the students’ best interest,” Gansler spokeswoman Raquel Guillory said.

Maryland’s colleges have two weeks to review Gansler’s proposed code of conduct, issued in a meeting Monday at the University of Baltimore.

Gansler also has requested information about each college’s use of the preferred-lender lists used by financial aid officers. Ellen Frishberg, Hopkins’ former director of financial aid, resigned last month after admitting to receiving payments from a lender on the university’s preferred-lender list, Student Loan Xpress Inc.

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Gansler has no reason to believe other college officials in the state acted improperly, Guillory said.

Gansler’s proposed code of conduct lays out the following guidelines:

» Colleges may not receive anything of value from a lending institution.

» Preferred lender lists must be based solely on the best interest of the students without the regard to financial interest of the college.

» The college must clearly and fully disclose the criteria used to select preferred lenders.

» Colleges may not permit a lender to appear on a preferred lender list unless the lender agrees to disclose at the time of the loan any pre-existing agreements to sell the loan to another lender.

Representatives from the University of Maryland, College Park, and Hopkins said they are in favor of some structure for a previously unregulated industry.

The proposed code of conduct is under consideration by Maryland’s state colleges, University System of Maryland spokeswoman Anne Moultrie said. She said USM Chancellor William “Brit” Kirwan will likely present the code of conduct to the Board of Regents for consideration this month.

“The university system certainly supports the spirit of the actions being taken by the attorney general,” Moultrie said in an e-mail.

mmcilroy@baltimoreexaminer.com