Federal student loan servicers and the $1.42 trillion they manage
Five companies service the entire federal Direct Loan and ED-owned FFEL book — $1,420,700,000,000 across roughly 37,460,000 loan-level recipients, as of March 31, 2026.Nelnet alone holds about a third of the balance. Only 5 servicer contracts remain after the consolidation that folded the old nonprofit and bank-run FFEL servicers into these five, so this page is a complete cross-section of the market, not a sample.
Portfolio by servicer
| Servicer | Dollars outstanding | Recipients | Portfolio share |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nelnet | $479,200,000,000 | 12,070,000 | 33.7% |
| AidVantage | $354,400,000,000 | 9,210,000 | 24.9% |
| MOHELA | $315,900,000,000 | 6,730,000 | 22.2% |
| EdFinancial | $216,100,000,000 | 6,520,000 | 15.2% |
| CRI | $55,100,000,000 | 2,930,000 | 3.9% |
| Total — 5 servicers | $1,420,700,000,000 | 37,460,000 | 100.0% |
Dollars outstanding is the published principal-plus-interest balance summed over all six loan statuses. Recipient counts are published per loan status, so a borrower with loans in two statuses is counted in each. FSA’s servicer files publish dollars and recipients but no loan counts, so no per-servicer loan count exists to list here.
Balances by loan status and servicer
| Servicer | Loan status | Dollars outstanding | Recipients |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nelnet | Repayment | $212,400,000,000 | 5,600,000 |
| Nelnet | Forbearance | $172,400,000,000 | 3,190,000 |
| AidVantage | Repayment | $165,700,000,000 | 4,540,000 |
| MOHELA | Forbearance | $133,300,000,000 | 1,770,000 |
| MOHELA | Repayment | $124,700,000,000 | 3,040,000 |
| AidVantage | Forbearance | $115,100,000,000 | 2,120,000 |
| EdFinancial | Repayment | $97,000,000,000 | 3,050,000 |
| EdFinancial | Forbearance | $59,500,000,000 | 1,290,000 |
| Nelnet | Deferment | $51,500,000,000 | 1,190,000 |
| AidVantage | Deferment | $39,300,000,000 | 900,000 |
| CRI | Repayment | $32,900,000,000 | 1,710,000 |
| Nelnet | In-School | $32,100,000,000 | 1,620,000 |
| MOHELA | Deferment | $29,500,000,000 | 660,000 |
| AidVantage | In-School | $27,400,000,000 | 1,360,000 |
| EdFinancial | Deferment | $27,400,000,000 | 710,000 |
| EdFinancial | In-School | $26,800,000,000 | 1,220,000 |
| MOHELA | In-School | $22,400,000,000 | 1,040,000 |
| CRI | Deferment | $8,800,000,000 | 280,000 |
| CRI | In-School | $8,100,000,000 | 700,000 |
| Nelnet | Grace | $8,000,000,000 | 410,000 |
| AidVantage | Grace | $4,600,000,000 | 250,000 |
| EdFinancial | Grace | $4,500,000,000 | 230,000 |
| CRI | Forbearance | $4,200,000,000 | 120,000 |
| MOHELA | Grace | $3,900,000,000 | 190,000 |
| Nelnet | Other | $2,800,000,000 | 60,000 |
| AidVantage | Other | $2,300,000,000 | 40,000 |
| MOHELA | Other | $2,100,000,000 | 30,000 |
| CRI | Grace | $1,000,000,000 | 120,000 |
| EdFinancial | Other | $900,000,000 | 20,000 |
| CRI | Other | $100,000,000 | 0 |
Balances by repayment plan
The same files break the in-repayment, deferment and forbearance balances down by repayment plan ($1273.6B across plans). SAVE remains the single largest plan by balance even though enrollment has been closed to new borrowers since mid-2024.
| Repayment plan | Dollars outstanding | Recipients |
|---|---|---|
| SAVE | $382,900,000,000 | 6,990,000 |
| Level, 10 years or less | $281,400,000,000 | 12,930,000 |
| Income-Based | $217,400,000,000 | 3,640,000 |
| Pay As You Earn | $127,900,000,000 | 1,520,000 |
| Level, more than 10 years | $82,700,000,000 | 1,590,000 |
| Graduated, 10 years or less | $64,700,000,000 | 2,210,000 |
| Income-Contingent | $55,900,000,000 | 1,310,000 |
| Graduated, more than 10 years | $36,700,000,000 | 640,000 |
| Alternative | $13,500,000,000 | 420,000 |
| Other / no plan listed | $10,400,000,000 | 290,000 |
| Income-Sensitive | $100,000,000 | 0 |
Sources and method
Every figure on this page is read from StudentAid.gov’s quarterly “Servicer Portfolio” spreadsheets, published through the Federal Student Aid data center and sourced from the National Student Loan Data System (NSLDS). The files cover Direct Loans and ED-owned Federal Family Education Loans together and exclude defaulted loans that are no longer held with a servicer, so this page measures the serviced federal book, not the full defaulted portfolio.
- Servicer Portfolio by Loan Status (Excel, 2026-Q1)
- Servicer Portfolio by Repayment Plan (Excel, 2026-Q1)
Data as of March 31, 2026 (2026-Q1) · Last reviewed 2026-09-17