Press

NPR's Leila Fadel talks to Mike Pierce of the Student Borrower Protection Center, about plans to extend the student loan payment pause and a reset for roughly 7 million borrowers who are in default.

“We’re very concerned,” said Persis Yu, policy director and managing counsel at the Student Borrower Protection Center, an advocacy group. “The company is taking over a large portfolio of student loans at a time when borrowers are especially vulnerable. And there’s a real question about whether they’re prepared.”

"The Student Borrower Protection Center (SBPC) released a report on Thursday, January 20 identifying more than 2.6 million people who collectively owe around $50 billion."

Based on a comprehensive review of securities filings, student loan promissory notes, and government data, SBPC estimates that $50 billion in so-called private student loans taken on by more than 2.6 million borrowers, are, in fact, eligible to be discharged in bankruptcy despite representations to the contrary by lenders and...

"The SBPC, a Washington D.C.-based advocacy group for student borrowers, estimates that a total of about $50 billion of such loans are out there, and they may be as easy to cancel in bankruptcy as credit card debt or other consumer loans."

"On Thursday, the Student Borrower Protection Center (SBPC) released a report that found 2.6 million borrowers with private student debt could be eligible for as much as $50 billion in loan cancellation through bankruptcy."

"A new report indicates that as much as $50 billion in debt, colloquially referred to as private student loans and held by 2.6 million borrowers, could actually be wiped away in bankruptcy court. The findings come from an analysis published Thursday by the Student Borrower Protection Center, an advocacy group."

As of March, however, only 32 borrowers have been forgiven out of millions, according to Insider. Persis Yu, Policy Director and Managing Counsel at the Student Borrower Protection Center, said millions of borrowers are still struggling to make payments, and the Biden Administration needs to help them.

According to Shapiro, Navient allegedly originated predatory subprime private loans to students attending for-profit schools and colleges with low graduation rates, even though it knew that many borrowers would be unable to repay the loans. Shapiro called the practice similar to the subprime mortgage crisis that led to the 2008...

The deal, announced Thursday, requires Navient to cancel $1.7 billion in private student loan debts for nearly 66,000 borrowers and pay $95 million in restitution. The private loans were crucial to Navient’s ability to make a large volume of lucrative federal loans, prosecutors said.