NAVIENT CORP Commitments Disclosure
12. Commitments, Contingencies and Guarantees
Legal Proceedings
We and our subsidiaries and affiliates are subject to various claims, lawsuits and other actions that arise in the normal course of business. We believe that these claims, lawsuits and other actions will not, individually or in the aggregate, have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition or results of operations, except as otherwise disclosed. Most of these matters are claims including individual and class action lawsuits relating to loan servicing or business processing and which allege violations of state or federal laws in connection with servicing or collection activities on education loans and other debts.
In the ordinary course of our business, the Company and our subsidiaries and affiliates receive information and document requests and investigative demands from various entities including State Attorneys General, U.S. Attorneys, legislative committees, individual members of Congress and administrative agencies. These requests may be informational, regulatory or enforcement in nature and may relate to our business practices, the industries in which we operate, or companies with whom we conduct business. Generally, our practice has been and continues to be to cooperate with these bodies and to be responsive to any such requests.
The number of these inquiries and the volume of related information demands have normalized at elevated levels and therefore the Company must continue to expend time and resources to timely respond to these requests which may, depending on their outcome, result in payments of restitution, fines and penalties.
Contingencies
In the ordinary course of business, we and our subsidiaries are defendants in or parties to pending and threatened legal actions and proceedings including actions brought on behalf of various classes of claimants. These actions and proceedings may be based on alleged violations of consumer protection, securities, employment and other laws. In certain of these actions and proceedings, claims for substantial monetary damage are asserted against us and our subsidiaries. We and our subsidiaries are also subject to potential unasserted claims by third parties.
In the ordinary course of business, we and our subsidiaries are subject to regulatory examinations, information gathering requests, inquiries and investigations. In connection with formal and informal inquiries in these cases, we and our subsidiaries receive requests, subpoenas and orders for documents, testimony and information in connection with various aspects of our regulated activities.
In view of the inherent difficulty of predicting the outcome of litigation and regulatory matters, we may not be able to predict what the eventual outcome of the pending matters will be, what the timing or the ultimate resolution of these matters will be, or what the eventual loss, fines or penalties, if any, related to each pending matter may be.
The Company accrues a liability for litigation, regulatory matters, and unasserted contract claims when those matters present loss contingencies that are both probable and reasonably estimable. When loss contingencies are not both probable and reasonably estimable, we do not accrue a liability. Based on current knowledge, management does not believe that loss contingencies, if any, arising from pending investigations, litigation or regulatory matters will have a material adverse effect on our consolidated financial position, liquidity, results of operations or cash flows, except as otherwise disclosed.
The Company evaluates its outstanding legal and regulatory matters each reporting period and makes adjustments to the accrued liabilities for such matters, upward or downward, as appropriate, based on the relevant facts and circumstances. The Company's accrued liabilities and estimated range of possible losses pertaining to certain matters can involve significant judgment given factors such as: the varying stages of the proceedings; the existence of numerous yet to be resolved issues; the breadth of the claims (often spanning multiple years and wide ranges of business activities); unspecified damages, civil money penalties or fines and/or the novelty of the legal issues presented; and the attendant uncertainty of the various potential outcomes of such proceedings, including where the Company has made assumptions concerning future rulings by the court or other adjudicator, or about the behavior or incentives of adverse parties or regulatory authorities. Various aspects of the legal proceedings underlying these estimates will change from time to time. Actual losses therefore may vary significantly from any estimates.
12. Commitments, Contingencies and Guarantees (Continued)
Set forth below are descriptions of the Company’s material legal proceedings.
Certain Cases
In January 2017, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (the CFPB) and Attorneys General for the State of Illinois and the State of Washington initiated civil actions naming Navient Corporation and several of its subsidiaries as defendants alleging violations of certain Federal and State consumer protection statutes, including the CFPA, FCRA, FDCPA and various state consumer protection laws. The Attorneys General for the States of Pennsylvania, California, Mississippi, and New Jersey also initiated actions against the Company and certain subsidiaries alleging violations of various state and federal consumer protection laws based upon similar alleged acts or failures to act. In addition to these matters, a number of lawsuits have been filed by nongovernmental parties or, in the future, may be filed by additional governmental or nongovernmental parties seeking damages or other remedies related to similar issues raised by the CFPB and the State Attorneys General. In January 2022, we entered into a series of Consent Judgment and Orders (the “Agreements”) with 40 State Attorneys General to resolve all matters in dispute related to the State Attorneys General cases as well as the related investigations, subpoenas, civil investigative demands and inquiries from various other state regulators.
Due to developments in the second half of 2023 and the first half of 2024 in connection with the Company's CFPB matter, the Company concluded a loss was probable and reasonably estimable. As of June 30, 2024, the contingency loss liability was $105 million (of which $3 million related to expected legal costs). Navient reached an agreement to settle the CFPB lawsuit in September 2024. While we do not agree with the CFPB’s allegations, this resolution is consistent with our go-forward activities and is an important positive milestone in our transformation of the Company. As part of the settlement, pursuant to which the Company did not admit to any wrongdoing, Navient agreed to pay $120 million, which includes a $100 million payment that will be used by the CFPB to make payments to certain borrowers as determined by the CFPB, in addition to a $20 million penalty. In light of the contingency loss liability established in the amount of $105 million as of June 30, 2024, there was an additional $18 million of contingency expense recorded in third-quarter 2024. The $120 million was paid prior to September 30, 2024. The settlement prohibits Navient from servicing federal student loans (other than in the role as master servicer of Navient’s FFELP Loan portfolio) and further prohibits Navient from purchasing any FFELP Loans in the future. These restrictions are not expected to have a material impact on Navient’s business as Navient had already exited its direct loan servicing contract with the Department of Education in 2021 and entered into an agreement with MOHELA to service Navient’s FFELP Loan portfolio in May 2024. It is not anticipated that the other requirements of the settlement will impact Navient’s go-forward business plans or operations.
Regulatory Matters
The Company has been named as defendant in a number of putative class action and other cases alleging violations of various state and federal consumer protection laws including the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA), the Consumer Financial Protection Act of 2010 (CFPA), the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA), in adversarial proceedings under the U.S. Bankruptcy Code, and various state consumer protection laws. At this point in time, the Company is unable to anticipate the timing of a resolution or the impact that these legal proceedings may have on the Company’s consolidated financial position, liquidity, results of operations or cash flows. As a result, it is not possible at this time to estimate a range of potential exposure, if any, for amounts that
may be payable in connection with these matters and loss contingency accruals have not been established. It is possible that an adverse ruling or rulings may have a material adverse impact on the Company.
In addition, Navient and its subsidiaries are subject to examination or regulation by various federal regulatory, state licensing or other regulatory agencies as part of its ordinary course of business including the SEC, CFPB, FFIEC and ED. Items or matters similar to or different from those described above may arise during the course of those examinations. We also routinely receive inquiries or requests from various regulatory entities or bodies or government agencies concerning our business or our assets. Generally, the Company endeavors to cooperate with each such inquiry or request.
Historical Timeline
| Fiscal Year | Filed | |
|---|---|---|
| 2025 | Feb 26, 2026 | Showing above |
| 2024 | Feb 27, 2025 | |
| 2023 | Feb 26, 2024 | |
| 2022 | Feb 24, 2023 | |
| 2021 | Feb 25, 2022 | |
| 2020 | Feb 26, 2021 | |
| 2019 | Feb 27, 2020 | |
| 2018 | Feb 26, 2019 | |
| 2017 | Feb 26, 2018 | |
| 2016 | Feb 24, 2017 | |
| 2015 | Feb 25, 2016 | |
About Commitments Disclosures
Commitments and contingencies disclosures catalog a company's off-balance-sheet obligations and legal exposures — purchase commitments, guarantee arrangements, pending litigation, and regulatory proceedings. These items represent potential future cash outflows that may not appear as liabilities on the balance sheet until they become probable and estimable.
Key signals: litigation reserves and disclosed loss ranges quantify management's estimate of legal exposure, but unquantified "reasonably possible" losses often represent the larger risk. Watch for changes in language around pending cases — shifts from "remote" to "reasonably possible" or increases in estimated loss ranges signal deteriorating outcomes. Unconditional purchase obligations and take-or-pay contracts create fixed cost structures that reduce operational flexibility. Guarantee arrangements for subsidiaries or joint ventures can create cascading obligations. Compare the total commitment schedule against projected free cash flow to assess whether the company can meet its obligations without additional financing.