Mississippi sues student loan processing company
Published 3:01 pm Tuesday, July 24, 2018
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood is suing the nation’s largest student loan processor, saying Delaware-based Navient Corp. has pushed “risky and expensive” loans.
Hood announced the lawsuit Tuesday, a week after filing it in Hinds County Chancery Court.
The California attorney general filed a similar lawsuit in late June, and Navient president and CEO Jack Remondi said the allegations in the California suit were unfounded.
The Mississippi lawsuit says Navient employees directed borrowers to repayment programs that cost “thousands of dollars in additional accrued interest.”
Hood says the suit seeks to stop Navient from targeting Mississippi students. It also seeks to make the corporation change its loan servicing practices and pay damages to the state.
The suit says Mississippi in 2013 had the nation’s fourth-highest student loan default rate.