BUSINESS
September 15, 2009 | Times Wire Services
Default rates among people who recently began paying off student loans jumped to 6.7% last year, the highest since 1998, from 5.2% as borrowers felt early effects of the recession, the U.S. government said. The default rate is based on borrowers who were to start repaying their loans from Oct. 1, 2006, to Sept. 30, 2007, and had fallen at least nine months behind by Sept. 30, 2008. The House of Representatives is preparing to vote this week on President Obama's plan to end federal guarantees and subsidies to student-loan providers such as Sallie Mae Inc. and Nelnet Inc.
BUSINESS
May 14, 2009 | Amit R. Paley, Paley writes for the Washington Post.
For two decades, every attempt to overhaul the $85-billion-a-year student loan industry by eliminating subsidies to lenders has faced insurmountable opposition from one of the most powerful institutions in the business: Sallie Mae, the world's largest student loan company. But in a dramatic reversal, the lending behemoth now supports President Obama's efforts to kill the subsidies it has tried to protect for so long.
BUSINESS
January 4, 2009
Thank you for highlighting this new economic scam. ("Students learn too late the costs of private loans," Dec. 27.) I received federal loans that did not cover everything, and I was referred to the Signature Student Loan from Sallie Mae by my school in Pittsburgh. I received my master's degree in psychology, and I currently owe more than $60,000 in both federal and private loans. To make things impossible, I owe about $600 a month for the next 30 years, and I only make $30,000 a year.
BUSINESS
May 1, 2008 | From Times Wire Services
For-profit education company Corinthian Colleges Inc. reported slightly lower quarterly profit, citing a loss from the sale of some schools, and said full-year earnings should come in at the low end of its previous forecast. The Santa Ana-based company, which has scrambled to retain students after Sallie Mae said it would stop providing private loans, said it now required most students to make monthly cash payments. It also has established a lending program and is working with third-party lenders to secure additional funds for students.
BUSINESS
April 12, 2008 | From the Associated Press
Sallie Mae, the nation's largest student loan provider, said Friday that it would stop offering lower-cost consolidation loans to college graduates because the federally backed business had become unprofitable. In a letter sent to colleges, Sallie Mae, formally known as SLM Corp., said it would concentrate instead on making new loans to students entering college. The suspension of the company's participation in the federal consolidation loan program took effect Friday.
BUSINESS
March 1, 2008 | From Times Wire Services
SLM Corp., the biggest U.S. student lender, said it received a subpoena from New York's attorney general for information related to its direct-to-consumer Tuition Answer loan. SLM, also known as Sallie Mae, received the subpoena Feb. 11, the Reston, Va., company said in a filing. SLM said it would cooperate with the investigation. The Tuition Answer product allows the company to originate and purchase loans away from "the traditional financial aid processes," the firm said in the filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.