Who Might Participate in the PLUS Loan Auction?

Press releases have been coming fast and furious about who is NOT participating: Sallie Mae, Chase, Edamerica, Citibank and Nelnet. 

We asked the following question of financial aid administrators in a Student Lending Analytics survey that closed today: 

Have you had any conversations with lender representatives who have indicated that their companies are planning to participate in the PLUS Loan Auction?

Here were the responses (I have provided additional commentary when it was included in the survey response as well as the number of times that a lender was mentioned). Just a reminder that this information DOES NOT necessarily represent the official position of any of these organizations but rather was the result of conversations with their lender reps:

• Georgia Student Finance Commission (1)
• College Foundation Inc. (CFI) (2)
  
  • "CFI is considering it"
    
• PNC Bank (3)
  
  • "At the time of the conversation, a PNC representative indicated they were still analyzing their data, but were strongly considering a bid."
  • "PNC indicated that they may participate"
• Mohela (1)
  
  • "Possibly MOHELA"
• The Student Loan People (2)

Four of the five lenders listed are public corporations or non-profit lenders which will probably limits the scope of their bidding to their home states; GSFC (Georgia), CFI (North Carolina), Mohela (Missouri) and The Student Loan People (Kentucky).  PNC is the only for-profit institution listed.  I hypothesized in an earlier post that Discover may have good strategic reasons for bidding also.

So, at this point, among the top 10 FFELP originators for 2007, among the viable options, we have not heard from Wells Fargo/Wachovia, US Bank and Access Group. 

Top 10 FFELP Loan originators in FY 2007

1. SLM Corporation (Sallie Mae)
2. Citibank, Student Loan Corp.
3. Bank of America (no longer responding to RFIs)
4. JPMorgan Chase Bank
5. Wells Fargo Education Financial Services
6. Wachovia Education Finance Inc.(merged with Wells Fargo)
7. College Loan Corp.(ceased operations)
8. US Bank
9. EdAmerica
10. Access Group

   

Comments

[Ed G.]

Here is the Top 10 FFELP Loan Originators in FY 2008 (including mergers)

1. SLM Corporation (Sallie Mae)
2. Wells Fargo Education Financial Services
3. Citibank, Student Loan Corp.
4. Bank of America (no longer responding to RFIs)
5. JPMorgan Chase Bank
6. US Bank
7. PNC
8. EdAmerica
9. SunTrust
10. Access Group