Are My Navient Services Federal Student Loans With Deutsche Bank Eligible for Biden Forgiveness?

Question:

Dear Steve,

I am a student loan holder, in re-payment since 2005. My loans were Federal Direct Subsidized Student Loans that were consolidated, and are currently owned by Deutsche Bank (serviced by Navient).

This may be of interest to your readers. There have been various conversations around student-loan forgiveness. From what I have heard recently, if there were some level of across-the-board student loan forgiveness, it would apply to Federal student loans.

Would my Federal loans that were consolidated, then purchased by Deutsche Bank be eligible? Or would these now be considered privately held, and not eligible?

Bonnie

Answer:

Dear Bonnie,

A very interesting question. It is true that Deutsche Bank is the holder of some loans. In 2017 the Department of Education reported Deutsche Bank ELT Navient & SLM Trusts held 4,309 loans. – Source

While you would hope that was clear and factual, Navient has allegedly stated, “Deutsche Bank ELT & SLM Trusts is a generic term used to identify loans administered by [Navient Solutions LLC] and held in any of a number of trusts.” – Source

I’m not sure we can easily unwinded who the exact holder of the loans might actually be since there are so many variations on the Deutsche Bank name.

However, if those loans are reported on NSLDS then they are recognized federal student loans and POTENTIALLY eligible for some forgiveness.

I say potentially because while President Biden or his spokespeople have mentioned hope for some forgiveness, there are no concrete details we can count on just yet. The devil is in the details.

The best advice I can give you at the moment is to log in to the National Students Loan Data System, confirm the loans are listed there and watch the news or wait for an email from Navient with more information.