There are four companies that the government contracts to process student loan payments; two firms, Nelnet and Great Lakes Educational Loan Services inc. are now merging; this will result in one company handling over 40% of student loan payments; according to this MarketWatch article, processors play an important role in whether a student pays down debt or defaults. Source
In their weekly industry update PeerIQ covered the most recent securitization deals and the acquisitions by student loan servicers Nelnet and Navient; Avant filed AVNT 2017-B worth $232.648mn, a consumer loan ABS transaction; PeerIQ took a close look at Mosaic whose most recent ABS transaction was heavily oversubscribed, with over $1.7 Bn in orders for a $307.5mn deal. Source.