Navient, one of the country’s largest student loan servicing providers, is being sued by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau who allege its practices breach federal and state consumer protection laws and are unfair, deceptive and abusive.
Given Navient’s status as the third-largest student loan servicing operator with more than 12 million student loan customers, the CFSB’s Navient lawsuit is one of the most closely watched class action lawsuits in the country’s courts at the moment.
It is early days in this massive lawsuit and too soon to tell if borrowers will wind up with compensation.
As you can see on our home page, a range of states (New Jersey is the latest) have filed similar suits against Navient alleging misconduct with respect to student loan borrowers.
Navient continues to aggressively defend these suits with its CEO Jack Remondi recently telling investors that “they are not supported by the facts and circumstances”.
“I think everyone has had the opportunity to see the actual evidence that has been submitted by the CFPB and their lawsuit. They came up with 15 witnesses who supposedly we steered into forbearance, all 15 of them acknowledged in depositions that Navient did in fact tell them about their repayment options, including income driven repayment options. A number of them were actually enrolled in income driven repayment plans. I don’t know how they could have been steered into something else if they’re already in it.
He went on to say some of the plaintiffs were “committing fraud against the federal government” indicating the company is going to take a very hard line against borrowers.
