WASHINGTON – Student loan borrowers who claim they were mistreated by Navient Corp. have started getting checks from a massive $100 million settlement fund, federal regulators announced this week.
The compensation payments kicked off on February 13 through a third-party consulting firm, according to information posted on the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s official website.
These payouts had been stalled for over a year after the Trump administration essentially froze operations at the consumer protection agency, leading advocacy groups to worry that hundreds of millions of dollars in penalty payments from previous enforcement cases might never reach affected consumers.
Neither CFPB officials nor Navient representatives provided immediate responses to requests for comment Tuesday evening.
Last year, Navient accepted a prohibition from handling federal student loan accounts and committed to paying $120 million total – with $100 million designated for victim compensation – to settle federal accusations that the company damaged millions of student borrowers financially. Regulators claimed Navient pushed borrowers toward payment delays instead of helping them access affordable repayment options, causing them to rack up additional interest charges.
At the time the settlement was announced, Navient stated it did not agree with the government’s accusations.
Mike Pierce, who previously worked at the CFPB and now leads the consumer advocacy group Protect Borrowers, criticized the administration’s handling of the case in a public statement. Pierce said the delays kept borrowers waiting for compensation for more than a year while giving the student loan industry a “free pass” despite rising default rates among student borrowers.
