With Government’s Help, Lenders Returning to Federal Student Loan Market
A number of lenders who abandoned the federal student loan market in recent months may be returning, in light of a new law designed to keep struggling lenders afloat, according to a Dow Jones Newswires article.
Many of the 102 companies that scaled back or withdrew from the Federal Family Education Loan Program, in which federal student loans are funded by private lenders, are expected to at least consider returning to the program for the 2008–09 academic year, writes Dow Jones reporter Melissa Korn (“Student Lenders Tiptoe Back to Market With Government Bailout,” June 4, 2008).
Brett Lief, president of the National Council of Higher Education Loan Programs, said every one of the lenders in his organization "changed their policies" during the credit crunch earlier this year — reducing or suspending their participation in the FFEL program. The 60 FFELP lenders that are members of the NCHELP reported that the changes were necessary because federal student loans were no longer profitable.
But after Congress passed the Ensuring Continued Access to Student Loans Act (HR 5715), which gives the U.S. Department of Education the authority to buy student loans from lenders who have been unable to sell them, those lenders are “all reviewing their policies again,” Lief said.
Before the passage of the act, Sallie Mae, one of the nation’s largest originators of federal student loans, was considering whether to remain in the FFEL program, and Nelnet, NorthStar Education Finance, Inc., and the Kentucky Higher Education Assistance Authority had left the FFEL program.
Under the new legislation, all four of these lenders have reaffirmed they will continue to issue new federal student loans. However, some lenders still question whether the government changes will ultimately be profitable despite the Education Department’s infusion of liquidity, while other lending banks, like Citibank, JPMorgan Chase, PNC, and SunTrust, remain unmoved.
These banks no longer offer student loans to certain colleges — schools that they have determined tend toward higher default rates, fewer borrowers, and smaller loan amounts that make business less profitable.