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Commitments and Contingencies | 3 Months Ended
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Mar. 31, 2017
Commitments and Contingencies Disclosure [Abstract] |
Commitments and Contingencies |
9. | Commitments and Contingencies
Legal Proceedings The Company has been named as defendant in a number of putative class action cases alleging violations of various state and federal consumer protection laws. One of these putative class action suits is Randy Johnson v. Navient Solutions, Inc. ("NSI"). On May 4, 2015, Randy Johnson filed a putative class action in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Indiana alleging violations of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (“TCPA”). During the fourth quarter of 2016, the parties entered into a settlement agreement and, on December 23, 2016, filed a Motion to Approve the Class Action Settlement with the Court. The Court preliminarily approved the settlement on January 26, 2017. NSI denied all claims asserted, but agreed to settle the case to avoid the burden, expense, risk and uncertainty of continued litigation. A reserve was established for this matter as of December 31, 2016. The proposed settlement is subject to Court approval with a hearing currently scheduled for July 2017. On January 18, 2017, the CFPB and Attorneys General for the State of Illinois and the State of Washington (collectively the “Attorneys General”) initiated civil actions naming Navient Corporation and several of its subsidiaries as defendants alleging violations of Federal and State consumer protection statutes, including the Consumer Financial Protection Act of 2010, the Fair Credit Reporting Act, the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act and various State consumer protection laws. For additional information on these civil actions, please refer to section entitled “Regulatory Matters” below. Regulatory Matters On May 2, 2014, Navient Solutions, Inc., now known as Navient Solutions, LLC (“Solutions”), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Navient, and Sallie Mae Bank entered into consent orders, without admitting any wrongdoing, with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (the “FDIC”) (respectively, the “Solutions Order” and the “Bank Order”; collectively, the “FDIC Orders”) to settle matters related to certain cited violations of Section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act, including the disclosures and assessments of certain late fees, as well as alleged violations under the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act (the “SCRA”). The FDIC Orders, which became effective upon the signing of the consent order with the United States Department of Justice (the “DOJ”) by Solutions and SLM BankCo on May 13, 2014, required Solutions to pay $3.3 million in civil monetary penalties. Solutions paid its civil monetary penalties. In addition, the FDIC Orders required the establishment of a restitution reserve account totaling $30 million to provide restitution with respect to loans owned or originated by Sallie Mae Bank, from November 28, 2005 until the effective date of the FDIC Orders. The FDIC lifted the consent order effective as of March 23, 2017 with no conditions. With respect to alleged civil violations of the SCRA, Solutions and Sallie Mae Bank entered into a consent order with the DOJ in May 2014. The DOJ consent order (the “DOJ Order”) covers all loans either owned by Sallie Mae Bank or serviced by Solutions from November 28, 2005 until the effective date of the settlement. The DOJ Order required Solutions to fund a $60 million settlement fund, which represents the total amount of compensation due to service members under the DOJ agreement, and to pay $55,000 in civil penalties. The DOJ Order was approved by the United States District Court in Delaware on September 29, 2014 and has a term of four years. Shortly thereafter, Navient funded the settlement fund and paid the civil money penalties pursuant to the terms of the order. The funds were disbursed beginning in the second quarter of 2015. In the third quarter of 2016, the Company completed the distributions from the fund by distributing the remaining funds to charities approved by the DOJ. The total reserves established by the Company in 2013 and 2014 to cover these costs were $177 million, and as of March 31, 2017, substantially all of this amount had been paid or credited or refunded to customer accounts. The final cost of these proceedings will remain uncertain until all of the work under the consent orders has been completed and the remaining consent order is lifted. As previously disclosed, the Company and various of its subsidiaries have been subject to the following investigations and inquiries:
| • |  | In December 2013, Navient received Civil Investigative Demands (“CIDs”) issued by the State of Illinois Office of Attorney General and the State of Washington Office of the Attorney General and multiple other state Attorneys General. According to the CIDs, the investigations were initiated to ascertain whether any practices declared to be unlawful under the Consumer Fraud and Deceptive Business Practices Act have occurred or are about to occur.
| • |  | In April 2014, Solutions received a CID from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (the “CFPB”) as part of the CFPB’s separate investigation regarding allegations relating to Navient’s disclosures and assessment of late fees and other matters. Navient has received a series of supplemental CIDs on these matters. In August 2015, Solutions received a letter from the CFPB notifying Solutions that, in accordance with the CFPB’s discretionary Notice and Opportunity to Respond and Advise (“NORA”) process, the CFPB’s Office of Enforcement is considering recommending that the CFPB take legal action against Solutions. The NORA letter relates to a previously disclosed investigation into Solutions’ disclosures and assessment of late fees and other matters and states that, in connection with any action, the CFPB may seek restitution, civil monetary penalties and corrective action against Solutions. The Company responded to the NORA letter in September 2015.
| • |  | In November 2014, Navient’s subsidiary, Pioneer Credit Recovery, Inc. (“Pioneer”), received a CID from the CFPB as part of the CFPB’s investigation regarding Pioneer’s activities relating to rehabilitation loans and collection of defaulted student debt. The CFPB has informed the Company that they have combined this matter with the aforementioned servicing matter.
| • |  | In December 2014, Solutions received a subpoena from the New York Department of Financial Services (the “NY DFS”) as part of the NY DFS’s inquiry with regard to whether persons or entities have engaged in fraud or misconduct with respect to a financial product or service under New York Financial Services Law or other laws.
On January 18, 2017, the CFPB and Attorneys General for the State of Illinois and the State of Washington (collectively the “Attorneys General”) initiated civil actions naming Navient Corporation and several of its subsidiaries as defendants alleging violations of Federal and State consumer protection statutes, including the Consumer Financial Protection Act of 2010, the Fair Credit Reporting Act, the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act and various state consumer protection laws. These civil actions are related to the aforementioned CIDs and the NORA letter that were previously issued by the CFPB and the Attorneys General. In addition to these matters, a number of lawsuits have been filed by nongovernmental parties or may be filed by additional governmental or nongovernmental parties seeking damages or other remedies related to similar issues raised by the CFPB and the Attorneys General. The Company filed its Motion to Dismiss on March 20, 2017 with respect to the Attorneys General actions and on March 24, 2017 with respect to the CFPB action. On April 25, 2017, the CFPB filed their response to our Motion to Dismiss. As the Company has previously stated, we believe the suit improperly seeks to impose penalties on Navient based on new servicing standards applied retroactively and applied only against one servicer and that the allegations are false. We intend to vigorously defend against the allegations. At this point in time, the Company is unable to anticipate the timing of a resolution or the ultimate impact that these legal proceedings may have on the Company’s consolidated financial position, liquidity, results of operation 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 reserves 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 the SEC, CFPB, FDIC, ED and various state agencies as part of its ordinary course of business. 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. The Company endeavors to cooperate with each such inquiry or request. Under the terms of the Separation Agreement, Navient has agreed to indemnify SLM BankCo for all claims, actions, damages, losses or expenses that may arise from the conduct of all activities of pre-Spin-Off SLM BankCo occurring prior to the Spin-Off other than those specifically excluded in the Separation and Distribution Agreement. As a result, liabilities arising out of the regulatory matters and CFPB and State Attorneys General lawsuits mentioned above, other than fines or penalties directly levied against Sallie Mae Bank and other matters specifically excluded, are the responsibility of, or assumed by, Navient or one of its subsidiaries, and Navient has agreed to indemnify and hold harmless Sallie Mae and its subsidiaries, including Sallie Mae Bank, therefrom. Navient has no additional reserves related to indemnification matters with SLM BankCo as of March 31, 2017. OIG Audit The Office of the Inspector General (the “OIG”) of ED commenced an audit regarding Special Allowance Payments (“SAP”) on September 10, 2007. On September 25, 2013, we received the final audit determination of Federal Student Aid (the “Final Audit Determination”) on the final audit report issued by the OIG on August 3, 2009 related to this audit. The Final Audit Determination concurred with the final audit report issued by the OIG and instructed us to make adjustment to our government billing to reflect the policy determination. In August 2016, we filed our notice of appeal relating to this Final Audit Determination to the Administrative Actions and Appeals Service Group of ED. This matter remains open. We continue to believe that our SAP billing practices were proper, considering then-existing ED guidance and lack of applicable regulations. The Company established a reserve for this matter in 2014 as part of the total reserve for pending regulatory matters discussed previously and does not believe, at this time, that an adverse ruling would have a material effect on the Company as a whole. 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. 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 numerous 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 such litigation and regulatory matters, we cannot 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. We are required to establish reserves for litigation and regulatory matters where those matters present loss contingencies that are both probable and estimable. When loss contingencies are not both probable and estimable, we do not establish reserves. Based on current knowledge, reserves have been established for certain litigation or regulatory matters where the loss is both probable and estimable. 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.

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