What dominates the section
- Education-loan credit performance, especially private loans, and declining legacy FFELP income dominate.
- Funding, liquidity, below-investment-grade ratings, interest-rate mismatches, and hedging materially shape earnings.
- CFPB and other regulatory scrutiny, litigation, cyber and operational resilience, and competition add execution risk.
The risks most specific to Navient
Defaults on education loans held by us, particularly Private Education Loans, could adversely affect our earnings
Defaults, particularly in Private Education Loans, can hurt earnings; FFELP Loans have agency insurance or guarantees and recovery rights from ED.
Our Consumer Lending segment exposes us to credit underwriting risks based upon the credit model we use to forecast loss rates. If we are unable to effectively forecast loss rates, it could materially adversely affect our operating results
Earnest’s credit models for education refinance and in-school Private Education Loans may misforecast loss rates, hurting Consumer Lending results.
Our business is affected by changes in interest rates and the cost and availability of funding in the capital markets
Capital-market volatility, rising rates, or unavailable funding could increase financing costs or prevent Navient from funding its business.
Our ability to hedge Floor Income and our ability to enter into hedges relative to that Floor Income is dependent on the future interest rate environment and therefore is variable, which may adversely affect our earnings
Variable Floor Income and hedging opportunities depend on future rates, affecting earnings on pre-April 2006 FFELP Loans.
Our credit ratings are important to our liquidity. A reduction in our credit ratings could adversely affect our liquidity, increase our borrowing costs or limit our access to the capital markets
Moody’s, S&P, and Fitch rate long-term unsecured debt below investment grade, raising funding costs and limiting capital-market access.
The interest rate characteristics of our earning assets do not always match the interest rate characteristics of our funding arrangements, which may have a negative impact on our net interest income and net income
SOFR- or Prime-indexed loan yields may not match funding rates after USD LIBOR cessation, reducing net interest income.
implemented, could have a material effect on our consumer lending or other businesses and may result in significant capital expenditures to develop systems that enable us to comply with the new regulations
New or changing regulations, including CFPB requirements, could require costly compliance systems and expose consumer lending to penalties and restitution.
Net income on our existing FFELP Loan portfolio is declining over time. We may not be able to develop revenue streams to replace the declining revenue from FFELP Loans through increased private credit originations
The legacy FFELP portfolio’s income is declining, and Navient may not replace it through increased private-credit originations.
We are subject to various legal proceedings and some of these legal proceedings or other contingencies may materially adversely affect our business, financial condition or results from operations
Legal proceedings across Navient’s businesses, including recently acquired operations, could materially damage financial condition or results.
All 32 risk factors
Headings as the filing states them, in filing order.
Other
- 01Economic conditions and the creditworthiness of third parties could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations, financial condition and stock price
- 02Defaults on education loans held by us, particularly Private Education Loans, could adversely affect our earnings
- 03The Company’s accounting for the Allowance for Loan Losses on our education loan portfolios requires significant judgment and estimates
- 04Our Consumer Lending segment exposes us to credit underwriting risks based upon the credit model we use to forecast loss rates. If we are unable to effectively forecast loss rates, it could materially adversely affect our operating results
- 05Our business is affected by changes in interest rates and the cost and availability of funding in the capital markets
- 06Prepayments on our loans can materially impact our profitability, results of operations, financial condition, cash flows or future business prospects
- 07Our ability to hedge Floor Income and our ability to enter into hedges relative to that Floor Income is dependent on the future interest rate environment and therefore is variable, which may adversely affect our earnings
- 08Our credit ratings are important to our liquidity. A reduction in our credit ratings could adversely affect our liquidity, increase our borrowing costs or limit our access to the capital markets
- 09Adverse market conditions or an inability to effectively manage our liquidity risk or access liquidity could negatively impact our ability to meet our liquidity and funding needs, which could materially and adversely impact our results of operations, cash flow or financial condition
- 10The interest rate characteristics of our earning assets do not always match the interest rate characteristics of our funding arrangements, which may have a negative impact on our net interest income and net income
- 11Our use of derivatives to manage interest rate and foreign currency sensitivity exposes us to credit and market risk that could have a material adverse effect on our earnings and liquidity
- 12If we do not effectively and continually align our cost structure with our business operations, our results of operations and financial condition could be materially adversely affected
- 13A failure of our operating systems or infrastructure could disrupt our business, cause significant losses, result in regulatory action or damage our reputation
- 14We depend on secure information technology, and a breach of our information technology systems could result in significant losses, disclosure of confidential customer information and reputational damage, which would adversely affect our business
- 15We depend on third parties for a wide array of services, systems and information technology applications, and a breach or violation of law by one of these third parties could disrupt our business or provide our competitors with an opportunity to enhance their position at our expense
- 16Our business could be negatively impacted as a result of shareholder activism, including a proxy contest or an unsolicited takeover proposal
- 17Uncertainties related to, or the results of, such actions could cause our stock price to experience periods of volatility. The occurrence of any of the foregoing events could materially adversely affect our business
- 18REGULATORY, COMPLIANCE & LEGAL RISK
- 19implemented, could have a material effect on our consumer lending or other businesses and may result in significant capital expenditures to develop systems that enable us to comply with the new regulations
- 20Expanded regulatory and governmental oversight of our businesses will increase our costs and risks
- 21Certain provisions of Delaware law and our amended and restated certificate of incorporation and amended and restated by-laws may prevent or delay an acquisition of us, which could decrease the trading price of our common stock
- 22the inability of our shareholders to cumulate their votes in the election of directors
- 23Shareholders’ percentage ownership in Navient may be diluted in the future
- 24Our certificate of incorporation designates the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware as the exclusive forum for certain litigation that may be initiated by our shareholders, which could limit our shareholders’ ability to obtain a favorable judicial forum for disputes with us
- 25Reputational risk and social factors may impact our results and damage our brand
- 26Net income on our existing FFELP Loan portfolio is declining over time. We may not be able to develop revenue streams to replace the declining revenue from FFELP Loans through increased private credit originations
- 27Our growth strategy has included making opportunistic acquisitions of, or material investments in, loan portfolios and complementary businesses and products
- 28Our framework for managing risks may not be effective in mitigating the risk of loss
- 29We are subject to various legal proceedings and some of these legal proceedings or other contingencies may materially adversely affect our business, financial condition or results from operations
- 30Incorrect estimates and assumptions by management in connection with the preparation of our consolidated financial statements could adversely affect our reported assets, liabilities, income, revenue or expenses
- 31If we are unable to attract and retain professionals with strong leadership skills, our business, results of operations and financial condition may be materially adversely affected
- 32Our businesses operate in competitive environments and could lose market share and revenues if competitors compete more aggressively or effectively
Other Navient 10-Ks
- 2026 10-K risk factors
31 risks, 1 new, 2 dropped, 10 reworded since the prior year. Earnest launched a personal-loan product in 2025, adding a new consumer-credit exposure.
Filed Feb 26, 2026
About this page
Item 1A of the 10-K on EDGAR was split into its risk factors and, where the company's previous 10-K is on file, each heading was matched to last year's and the text compared word for word. The headings are the filing's own. The one-line readings and the overview were written by a language model from the text of the new, dropped, and rewritten risks; they refer to risks by position and cannot misquote a heading.