Given the tumult in the student loan marketplace, I thought it would be interesting to analyze how the base of exhibitors have changed at the annual NASFAA conference, which recently took place in Orlando, Florida from July 6-9, 2008. In reviewing exhibitors listed in the 2007 and 2008 Programs, there are some interesting insights:
- The number of companies exhibiting at the conference declined by 11.1% from 90 in 2007 to 80 in 2008. Given the large number of lenders that suspended operations in the wake of the combination of subsidy cuts in CCRA and the "credit crunch", this decline is certainly not unexpected.
- What is more interesting is how the composition of exhibitors has changed between 2007 and 2008:
- 32 of the vendor exhibitors for NASFAA's 2007 Annual Conference chose not to participate at the 2008 Annual Conference.
- 23 of the 32 who exhibited in 2007 but NOT 2008 are lenders including College PayWay, M&T Bank, Student Loan Xpress, Graduate Leverage, Mohela, National City, National Education and U.S. Education Finance Group.
- Reflecting the dynamism of the student loan marketplace, there were 22 new exhibitors in 2008 representing a variety of sectors:
- Peer-to-Peer lending: Fynanz, GreenNote and Zopa
- Lenders: Charter One Bank and Discover
- Services: CollegeToolkit.com, Financial Aid TV and Student Lending Analytics
- Interest in Direct Lending: National Direct Student Loan Coalition
Note: Analysis is based on exhibitor information provided in 2007 and 2008 NASFAA programs and would not reflect any changes made after the publication of these programs.
Comments
You can follow this conversation by subscribing to the comment feed for this post.