Consumer complaint received 2024-09-12
Product: Student loan — Private student loan
Issue: Dealing with your lender or servicer — Received bad information about your loan
Company: Navient Solutions, LLC. (LA)

Today, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau ( CFPB ) filed a proposed order against the student loan servicer Navient for its years of failures and lawbreaking. If entered by the court, the proposed order would permanently ban the company from servicing federal Direct Loans and would forbid the company from directly servicing or acquiring most loans under the XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX. These bans would largely remove Navient from a market where it, among other illegal actions, steered numerous student loan borrowers into costly repayment options. Navient also illegally deprived student borrowers of opportunities to enroll in more affordable income-driven repayment plans and forced them to pay much more than they should have. Under the terms of the order, Navient would have to pay a {$20.00} XXXX penalty and provide {$100.00} XXXX in redress for harmed borrowers. 

For years, XXXX top executives profited handsomely by exploiting students and taxpayers, said CFPB XXXX XXXX XXXX. By banning the notorious student loan giant from federal student loan servicing and ensuring the winddown of these operations, the CFPB will finally put an end to the years of abuse. 

I applaud the CFPB for obtaining concrete relief for borrowers and deterring similar failures in the future, said XXXX. Under Secretary of Education XXXX XXXX. XXXX action builds on the XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX hold loan servicers accountable and protect borrowers, including more than XXXX XXXX borrowers who have received debt relief by fixing past failures to properly track progress toward forgiveness, such as correcting harms from forbearance steering. 

The CFPBs investigation of Navient kicked off a series of efforts by state and federal agencies to examine forbearance steering and other breakdowns in the income-driven repayment program. Those efforts have resulted in more than {$50.00} XXXX in debt relief for more than XXXX XXXX borrowers who were wrongly steered into forbearance, as well as those who had payments miscounted. Todays order complements actions already taken by the Department of Education and state attorneys general to provide redress to borrowers harmed by Navient.

The CFPB sued Navient for failing borrowers at every stage of repayment. The lawsuit alleges that Navient steered borrowers who may have qualified for income-driven repayment plans into forbearance instead. This practice was cheaper and simpler for Navient, but detrimental to borrowers. By steering struggling borrowers into forbearance where interest continues to accrue and capitalize Navients illegal actions led numerous borrowers to pay additional interest charges. 

Navient is a repeat offender with a long history of regulatory violations. After a referral from the CFPB, in XXXX, the Department of Justice and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation ordered Navient and its predecessor, XXXX XXXX, to pay almost {$100.00} XXXX for illegally overcharging nearly XXXX service tomembers. In XXXX, the Department of Education ordered Navient to return more than {$22.00} XXXX in overcharges. In XXXX, XXXX state attorneys general announced a {$1.00} XXXX settlement with Navient for originating predatory student loans in addition to its forbearance steering practices.