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Student Loan Lenders and Servicers

Student loan servicers are responsible for the servicing of any student loan to any borrower, and they include any nonbank covered person as defined under federal regulation. 

New Student Lender Registration Requirement Effective January 1, 2025 – please review the registration requirement notice. Student lenders means an entity engaged in the business of securing, making or extending student loans.

Apply

  • Minnesota uses the Nationwide Multistate Licensing System (NMLS). Persons applying for the student loan lender or servicer license are required to use the NMLS. 
  • There is one checklist on the NMLS for student loan lenders. There are two checklists on the NMLS for student loan servicer license: One is a regular application checklist titled “student loan servicer license”, and another separate one titled “student loan services – federal contract” for those applicants who can document that they are servicing student loans pursuant to a contract awarded by the United States Secretary of Education
  • Please note that there is also a student loan servicer branch license for those persons who wish to service student loans at multiple places of business.
  • Please read Minnesota Statutes Chapter 58B, which you can access before applying for a license.
  • Total initial application fee is $1,000.

Renewal 

  • Licenses issued under Minnesota Statutes Chapter 58B expire annually on December 31 and are renewable by January 1 of each year.  
  • The renewal fee is $500.

Cancellation/Surrender

  • Surrender of a license can be requested through the NMLS.
  • The written notification will need to include a plan for withdrawal from student loan servicing as listed on the surrender checklist, including a timetable for the disposition of the student loans being serviced.

Exemptions

The following persons are exempt from the servicing requirements of this chapter:

  • a financial institution (defined as any of the following organized under the laws of this state, any other state, or the United States: a bank, bank and trust, trust company with banking powers, savings bank, savings association, or credit union)
  • a person servicing student loans made with the person's own funds, if no more than three student loans are made in any 12-month period
  • an agency, instrumentality, or political subdivision of this state that makes, services, or guarantees student loans
  • a person acting in a fiduciary capacity, such as a trustee or receiver, as a result of a specific order issued by a court of competent jurisdiction
  • the University of Minnesota

The following persons are excluded from the definition of a lender for the purposes of this chapter:

  • a bank, savings banks, savings and loan association, or credit union;
  • a wholly owned subsidiary of a bank or credit union;
  • an operating subsidiary where each owner is wholly owned by the same bank or credit union;
  • the United States government, through Title IV of the Higher Education Act of 1965, as amended, and administered by the United States Department of Education;
  • an agency, instrumentality, or political subdivision of Minnesota;
  • a regulated lender organized under chapter 56, except that a regulated lender must file the annual report required for lenders under section 58B.03, subdivision 11; or
  • a person who is not in the business of making student loans and who makes no more than three student loans, with the person's own funds, during any 12-month period.
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