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Navient, a financial services company that was once one of the country’s largest federal student loan collecting companies, is laying off 128 people who report to its office in Fishers.
The Herndon, Virginia-based company reported the layoffs on Aug. 4 to the Indiana Department of Workplace Development and city of Fishers officials in a WARN notice.
The Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification, or WARN, Act requires employers to disclose impending large layoffs and plant closings to employees, their representatives and the state workforce office.
About 1,400 people work in the company’s 450,000-square-foot loan servicing and data center east of Interstate 69 and north of 106th Street.
The layoffs will affect 128 people who primarily work remotely and who are considered employees of Navient’s office located at 11100 USA Parkway, Suite 3100, in Fishers. Permanent layoffs are expected to occur over the next several months between October and June. The first separations are expected to happen Oct. 3-17, according to the notice.
Catherine Fitzgerald, senior director of communications, marketing and community outreach at Navient, said in an email that about two-thirds of the employees affected work in Indiana, and the remainder are in other states but report to a management chain in Indiana.
“We communicated to employees well in advance as part of a proactive approach to keep team members informed during our transformation activities,” Fitzgerald said. “We recognize the impact these difficult decisions have on employees and will provide severance benefits and resources to assist them during their transition.”
In 2022, Navient agreed to cancel $1.7 billion in debt owed by more than 66,000 borrowers across the United States and pay over $140 million in other penalties to settle allegations of abusive lending practices.
In January 2024, Navient announced it would begin outsourcing the servicing of its student loan portfolio to a third party, streamline operations and save $400 million in operating costs. The company laid off nearly 1,000 employees last year.
Last September, Navient reached a $120 million settlement with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which led to the company being permanently banned from servicing federal student loans. Under the terms of the order, Navient paid a $20 million penalty and provided $100 million to impacted borrowers.
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