Attorney General Weiser secures settlement with a private education lender over deceptive student loan practices

Nov. 7, 2025 (DENVER) — Attorney General Phil Weiser today announced a settlement with Climb Investco LLC, a private education lender, resolving allegations that the company misled Colorado consumers about the quality of the educational programs it financed.

An investigation by the Colorado Department of Law found that Climb falsely claimed to evaluate and verify the quality of its partner schools. In reality, Climb conducted no diligence on more than half of the schools it partnered with and failed to maintain any consistent or meaningful review process. Despite these failures, Climb marketed its loans as being associated with high-quality, career-advancing education programs.

“Climb deceived students by claiming it had vetted the schools it financed, when in fact it had not,” said Attorney General Weiser. “This kind of misrepresentation undermines trust and puts students at risk. We will not allow lenders to mislead students into taking on debt for programs that may not deliver on their promises.”

The investigation also revealed that Climb used the names, logos, and branding of educational institutions in its marketing materials in a way that falsely implied those institutions endorsed Climb’s loans—another violation of state and federal law.

Under the terms of the settlement, Climb has agreed to:

  • Stop collecting on over $1 million in outstanding student loans issued to Colorado borrowers.
  • Conduct a comprehensive self-audit to identify loans associated with schools where it failed to conduct due diligence.
  • Pay a $500,000 suspended penalty, which may be enforced if Climb violates the settlement terms.
  • Marketing restrictions to prevent misleading use of school names or logos and including in materials a disclosure warning consumers not to rely on Climb to assess the quality of educational programs.

This settlement ensures that Colorado consumers are protected through state-level enforcement. It also complements a federal lawsuit filed by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which alleged similar deceptive conduct.

The Colorado Attorney General’s Office will continue to monitor Climb’s compliance with the settlement and encourages any affected consumers to file complaints at stopfraudcolorado.gov.

Read the settlement with Climb Investco, LLC (PDF).

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Media Contact:
Lawrence Pacheco
Chief Communications Officer
(720) 508-6553 office
(720) 245-4689 mobile
lawrence.pacheco@coag.gov