Students throw their mortarboards in the air during their graduation photograph.
Photographer: Christopher Furlong/Getty Images EuropeHundreds of thousands of Americans in debt from the worst batch of student loans Wall Street ever bundled could see their balances cut under a tentative agreement the feds have struck with a little-known firm that effectively owns more than $8 billion in securitized student debt.
The tentative deal, which has not yet been finalized, would resolve a years-long investigation by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau into consumer lawyers’ allegations that debt collectors for the 15 trusts that hold that debt have flooded courts with sloppy lawsuits against tens of thousands of borrowers accused of having defaulted.