Sallie Mae 2000 Annual Report Download - page 8

Unity Creates New Opportunities
“Never underestimate the power of dreams,” said Wilma
Rudolph, who overcame polio to become a three-time
Olympic gold-medal winner, “because the potential for great-
ness lies within each of us.”
For nearly three decades, Sallie Mae has helped millions
of men and women realize their potential by providing funds
for affordable educational loans, primarily federally guaran-
teed student loans originated under the Federal Family
Education Loan Program (FFELP). Today, the company serves
in excess of seven million borrowers through its ownership
and management of more than $67 billion in student loans.
In the year 2000, Sallie Mae intensified its commitment
to help individuals tap their potential through a college edu-
cation. We forged new relationships and alliances, enhanced
services and support to students, schools, lenders and guaran-
tors, and sought innovative ways to maximize opportunities
for customers and shareholders. Among Sallie Mae’s major
accomplishments in 2000: the $770 million acquisition of the
guarantee servicing, student loan servicing and secondary
market operations of USA Group.
The merging of these two industry leaders advances
Sallie Mae’s mission of making education accessible and
affordable like never before, with the immediate beneficiaries
being America’s students, colleges and universities.
Combining the respective talents and resources of one of the
nation’s leading student loan service providers, USA Group,
with Sallie Mae, the largest student loan capital provider, also
adds unprecedented value to the offerings we can provide to
the education community.
We now have the most powerful student loan sales force
in the country, giving us the ability to have one-on-one
contact with every major college and university and to keep
a constant pulse on what schools want and need. Equally
important, the merger gives Sallie Mae the opportunity to cre-
ate a company that is now a single source of service for cus-
tomers—from the point of loan application to successful
repayment.
The combination also allows Sallie Mae to pursue new
business lines, in addition to the opportunity to market to an
expanded customer base of 5,000 schools, and millions of
student and parent borrowers. Finally, for our investors and
shareholders, the acquisition means enormous future earnings
potential as it expands Sallie Mae’s revenue base by adding
nearly 40 percent in new, fee-based business lines.
These and other efforts complete the campus-based loan
delivery picture for the “new Sallie Mae,” allowing us to partic-
ipate in every aspect of access to higher education. Decades
from now, we will recall the year 2000 as an incredible
milestone—a time in which we positioned ourselves to
embrace the challenges and opportunities of the future
like never before.
CREATING OPPORTUNITIES FOR THE FUTURE
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