Sallie Mae

It's no secret the recession wiped away many Americans' wealth and savings while altering spending habits. That has changed how many families are paying for college. A survey released Tuesday by Sallie Mae found that parents are now contributing less of their income for college than they did four years ago.  Instead, families are relying more on grants and scholarships to cover the costs of higher education. They are also cutting expenses from the traditional college experience.

Students who get the runaround from companies handling their college loans soon may get help from the federal government. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau said it will begin regulating the nation's largest student-loan servicing firms, which manage student accounts, process monthly payments and respond to borrower questions. Though they don't make the loans, the companies are the main point of contact for borrowers. They effectively serve as gatekeepers that have enormous influence over requests for deferments or loan modifications.

Management and fractious shareholders of Sallie Mae, both unable to muster sufficient shareholder support, agreed to compromise Tuesday in their battle over the future of the giant marketer of student loans. By an act of Congress, Sallie Mae--now a government-sponsored enterprise with $47 billion in assets--is due to go fully private by next spring. The two sides have proposed competing business plans for the future company and have been negotiating on and off for the last 12 days.

It's no secret the recession wiped away many Americans' wealth and savings while altering spending habits. That has changed how many families are paying for college. A survey released Tuesday by Sallie Mae found that parents are now contributing less of their income for college than they did four years ago.  Instead, families are relying more on grants and scholarships to cover the costs of higher education. They are also cutting expenses from the traditional college experience.

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.

The Student Loan Marketing Assn. said it will begin offering its customers an array of insurance plans next month, in a partnership with Answer Financial Inc.'s licensed insurance agency. The joint venture with Los Angeles-based Answer Financial is the first of its kind for Reston, Va.-based Sallie Mae, a unit of SLM Holding Corp.

Faced with growing near-term financial pressures, Sallie Mae has dropped its lawsuit against the banks and investors that walked away from buying it in a deal to refinance $30 billion in debt. The nation's largest student lender said it would no longer seek a $900-million breakup fee from investors led by private-equity firm J.C. Flowers & Co. Instead, it has agreed to new terms on $31 billion in financing being provided by seven banks, including JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Bank of America Corp.

USA Education Inc., commonly known as Sallie Mae, agreed to buy closely held General Revenue Corp. to gain the largest U.S. collection agency focusing on student-loan delinquencies. Terms weren't disclosed. Sallie Mae, the biggest buyer of U.S. government-guaranteed student loans, would gain about 800 clients, 730 of which are institutions of higher education. Cincinnati-based General Revenue has about 450 employees. Reston, Va.

SLM Corp., the student-loan company known as Sallie Mae, said the Securities and Exchange Commission was investigating accounting in a recently acquired subsidiary. "While the amounts in question appear to be less than $100,000, the company and its audit committee take such matters very seriously and are taking all appropriate actions," Reston, Va.-based Sallie Mae said. The SEC declined to comment.

Student lender Sallie Mae posted a third-quarter loss as Chairman Albert Lord told investors that it was still possible for a consortium that agreed to buy out the student lender for $60 a share in cash to complete the deal. If the proposed $25-billion buyout of Sallie Mae, which has ended up in court, falls through, Lord said, he still believes the student lender's future should be as a private company.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

The Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency, the state's biggest student financial aid provider, said it rejected a $1-billion takeover offer from SLM Corp., or Sallie Mae, the largest buyer of student loans. The board also passed a resolution that said the agency would never be sold to a for-profit corporation. The 40-year-old agency, based in Harrisburg, Pa., administers the state's education grant programs, guarantees about $3.1 billion in loans and services about $28.

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.

For-profit education company Corinthian Colleges Inc. said student loan company Sallie Mae would no longer provide serial sub-prime private loans for current students, adding to worries that Corinthian students would have difficulty funding their education. Sallie Mae, the commonly used name for SLM Corp., will continue to fund all current sub-prime loans on the books but it will not provide new "serial," or subsequent, loans for these students, Corinthian said in a securities filing.