Navient, the nation’s largest student loan servicer, yesterday filed a motion for a partial summary judgment on two of the 11 counts the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has brought against it, accusing the CFPB of failing to provide evidence of its claims, Politico reported. The CFPB filed suit in January 2017, alleging that Navient had “steered hundreds of thousands of federal student loan borrowers experiencing long-term financial hardship” into forbearance, which allows borrowers to temporarily stop making payments, while providing little or no information about alternative repayment plans, among other counts. The bureau identified 32 borrowers to support its claims, according to the filing, before withdrawing all but 15 of them. Of those, the 14 the company has already deposed “were informed about [income-driven repayment options] including prior to and immediately after forbearance,” Navient said. The company has now added some of the CFPB’s original witnesses to its own potential witness list. Navient has also accused the CFPB of stalling for time in the case; factual discovery was initially set to close in May 2018, but the consumer bureau has obtained three extensions, moving the deadline to June 2019.
