Student Lending Analytics Blog

Bank of America Exiting Federal Student Loan Program

Bank of America, the largest U.S. bank based on asset size, announced today that they will be exiting the Federal Family Education Loan Program, or FFELP, in December.  Here is a copy of their announcement to their school customers:  Download Bank of America Student Lending Announcement 11.6.09

Here are some details from their announcement:

Someone's Thinking About Preferred Lender Lists...

Yes, I know if seems early, but I saw this news on NASFAA News earlier this week, which came from a Harvard release:

Graduate & Professional Student Loan Programs Request for Proposal (RFP) from Lenders Offering Non-Federal Student Loans

BOSTON, October 27, 2009 -- Harvard University is seeking proposals from lenders offering non-federal student educational loans for the 2010-2011 academic year through a Request for Proposal (RFP) process. This request seeks one loan product for all our domestic and international graduate and professional students enrolled at least half-time. It does not concern Federal Stafford or PLUS loans.

With more than ten years of private lending experience and a total portfolio in excess of $350 million, Harvard's domestic and international graduate and professional student borrowers have shown an exceptionally low private loan default rate.

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If you are interested in discussing what changes are in store for 2009-10 for preferred lender lists, drop me a line at tranzetta@studentlendinganalytics.com and we can schedule a time. 

SLA 2009-10 Private Loan Lender List Penetration Report

So, who is showing up most frequently on school lender lists for private student loans?  We thought you might like to know. 

Here were the top eight lenders based on the frequency that they appeared on the lender lists of the 425 schools that were analyzed in this study (no other lender appeared on more than 10% of the lists analyzed):

Lender	Penetration
Chase	77%
Wells Fargo	72%
Sallie Mae	69%
Citibank	65%
Discover	36%
US Bank	28%
SunTrust Bank	24%
PNC Bank	21%

Go to SLA Private Loan Ratings for an independent evaluation of the private loan products offered by each of these lenders.  

SLA Updates Private Student Loan Ratings Based on Lender Changes

There was a flurry of recent changes announced by lenders, leading to changes to the SLA Private Student Loan Ratings: 

What Should I Communicate To First-Time Parent PLUS Borrowers Now?

With award letters hitting mailboxes over the next few weeks, a question that has come up frequently within the financial aid community is: 

• How should I communicate with first time Parent PLUS borrowers that they will need to wait to apply until the dust settles on the PLUS auction process (winners should be announced prior to April 24th)? 

Preferred Lender Lists...Here We Come!

I am starting to see a smattering of lender lists on school financial aid websites.  Here are some that I uncovered this afternoon:

• Grinnell College provided the following details for their 2009-10 Stafford Lender List:

        Lender Selection: We contacted lenders previously included on our list and determined that         the following would continue to be included for 2009-10 based on criteria described below.         Additionally, lenders who asked to be added to this list were considered using the same             criteria. Grinnell State Bank is new to the list. This list is effective as of 11/18/2008.

For 2009-10, ECMC No Longer Paying Down 1% Federal Default Fee For Borrowers [Updated]

Here is a copy of the letter that went out to schools earlier this week:  Download ECMC_FDF Letter
The company provided the following explanation for this change: 

What's Up With the Parent PLUS Loan Auction?

(See Related Posts below for updates on the PLUS Loan Auction)

I have spent some time this afternoon searching for an update on the pilot PLUS Loan Auction, the mechanism by which the Department of Education would designate two lenders to be exclusive PLUS loan providers for each state.  Their selections would be based on a closed bidding process described in the College Cost Reduction Act. 

The last update I came across was posted in NASFAA News on November 13, 2008.  Here were a few excerpts from that report:

New Details Emerging About $60 Billion FFELP Conduit Program

Bloomberg article today is providing additional details about Treasury conduit program:

SLA Webinar "Managing Lender Lists in Times of Financial Turmoil" Now Available

The archived version of the Student Lending Analytics Webinar "Managing Lender Lists in A Time of Financial Turmoil" which was presented earlier today is available by clicking here.  Thanks to all who participated!