Sallie Mae 2005 Annual Report Download - page 29

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CORPORATE AND OTHER BUSINESS SEGMENT
Guarantor Services
We earn fees for providing a full complement of administrative services to FFELP guarantors. FFELP
student loans are guaranteed by these agencies, with ED providing reinsurance to the guarantor. The
guarantors are non-profit institutions or state agencies that, in addition to providing the primary guarantee
on FFELP loans, are responsible for other activities including:
•guarantee issuance—the initial approval of loan terms and guarantee eligibility;
•account maintenance—maintaining and updating of records on guaranteed loans; and
•guarantee fulfillment—review and processing of guarantee claims.
Currently, we provide a variety of these services to nine guarantors and, in 2005, we processed $14.5
billion in new FFELP loan guarantees, of which $10.7 billion was for USA Funds, the nation’s largest
guarantor. We now process guarantees for approximately 29 percent of the FFELP loan market.
Guarantor servicing revenue, which included guaranty issuance and account maintenance fees, was $115
million for 2005, 82 percent of which we earned from services performed on behalf of USA Funds.
Under some of our guarantee services agreements, including our agreement with USA Funds, we
receive certain scheduled fees for the services that we provide under such agreements. The payment for
these services includes a contractually agreed upon set percentage of the account maintenance fees that
the guarantors receive from ED. Currently, under the HEA, guarantors are entitled to receive account
maintenance fees equal to 10 basis points of the original principal amount of the outstanding FFELP
student loans guaranteed by the guarantors. These fees are subject to a statutory limitation, however,
through FFY 2006. Because of this limitation, we believe that there will be an insufficient amount of
account maintenance fees received by guarantors in FFY 2006, which will result in lower than projected
fees paid to us under some of our guarantee services agreements, including our largest guarantor client,
USA Funds. Under the Reauthorization Legislation, this statutory limitation will be removed effective
October 1, 2006. (See “MANAGEMENT’S DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS OF FINANCIAL
CONDITION AND RESULTS OF OPERATIONS—CORPORATE AND OTHER BUSINESS
SEGMENT—Fee and Other Income.”)
Our primary non-profit competitors in guarantor servicing are state and non-profit guarantee agencies
that provide third party outsourcing to other guarantors.
(See APPENDIX A, “FEDERAL FAMILY EDUCATION LOAN PROGRAM—Guarantor
Funding” for details of the fees paid to guarantors.)
Loan Servicing
We earn fees by providing a full complement of activities required to service student loans on behalf
of other lenders. These activities, which generally begin once a loan has been fully disbursed, include
processing correspondence and filing claims, originating and disbursing Consolidation Loans on behalf of
the lender, and other administrative activities required by ED. Loan servicing revenue was $44 million for
2005.
REGULATION
Like other participants in the FFELP program, the Company is subject, from time to time, to review
of its student loan operations by ED and guarantee agencies. ED is authorized under its regulations to
limit, suspend or terminate lenders from participating in the FFELP, as well as impose civil penalties if
lenders violate program regulations. The laws relating to the FFELP program are subject to revision. (See