NAVIENT CORP

Navient was chartered in 1972 as a Government-Sponsored Enterprise (GSE) called Student Loan Marketing Association (nicknamed Sallie Mae). The company was created by Congress to support the student loan program established by the Higher Education Act of 1965. It was created mainly for two reasons: 1) to purchase student loans in the secondary market; and, 2) to securitize pools of student loans. The objective is to create liquidity for these loans to increase their value to lenders, reducing the costs to borrowers in the process.

Sallie Mae's privatization began in 1997. In 2004, Sallie Mae's GSE charter dissolved and it became a private-sector company with an independent board.

The U.S. Department of Education selected Sallie Mae in 2009 to service federal loans on its behalf.

In 2010, Congress passed the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010, which eliminated the federally guaranteed loan program known as Federal Family Education Loan Program (FFELP), under which banks and companies like Sallie Mae made loans to college students backed by a federal guarantee. As a result, effective July 1, 2010, all federal loans were originated directly by the U.S. Department of Education. Currently, there are no existing government-sponsored entities that provide securitization of student loans.

The company announced in 2013 its plans to separate into two publicly traded companies – an education loan management business to be launched with a new name – Navient – and a consumer banking business, which retained the name Sallie Mae. The spin-off was completed on April 30, 2014.

In 2015, Navient attracted recognition from 2020 Women on Boards, the Women's Forum of New York, and the New York Stock Exchange Governance Services for gender diversity on its board of directors.

The company acquired asset recovery and business process outsourcing firm, Gila LLC, and health care payments firm Xtend Healthcare.

On September 28, 2021, Navient announced that it planned to cease servicing federal student loans. It initially asked to offload its responsibilities to another federal loan servicer, Maximus Inc. In October 2021, the Department of Education approved the plan for Navient to transfer outstanding Department of Education owned federal loans and select personnel to Maximus through a newly formed federal loan servicing unit called Aidvantage.

In 2021, student loan borrowers filed a lawsuit against Navient in order to force the company into bankruptcy. In January 2022, a $1.85 billion settlement was announced between student loan borrowers and Navient. On October 17, 2022, the student borrowers won an injunction that barred the company from collecting payments for certain loans that were considered discharged in bankruptcy.

In 2023, a Navient subsidiary Earnest began lending to international students.

In May 2024, Navient agreed to outsource its student loan servicing operations to MOHELA.

In September 2024, Navient was banned from servicing most federal student loans, as well as required to pay $20 million in fines and $100 million in compensation to borrowers, under a proposed settlement with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB).