Sallie Mae 2011 Annual Report Download - page 40

While GAAP provides a uniform, comprehensive basis of accounting, for the reasons described above, our
“Core Earnings” basis of presentation does not. “Core Earnings” are subject to certain general and specific
limitations that investors should carefully consider. For example, there is no comprehensive, authoritative
guidance for management reporting. Our “Core Earnings” are not defined terms within GAAP and may not be
comparable to similarly titled measures reported by other companies. Accordingly, our “Core Earnings”
presentation does not represent a comprehensive basis of accounting. Investors, therefore, may not be able to
compare our performance with that of other financial services companies based upon “Core Earnings.” “Core
Earnings” results are only meant to supplement GAAP results by providing additional information regarding the
operational and performance indicators that are most closely used by management, our board of directors, rating
agencies, lenders and investors to assess performance.
Specific adjustments that management makes to GAAP results to derive our “Core Earnings” basis of
presentation are described in detail in the section entitled “‘Core Earnings’ — Definition and Limitations —
Differences between ‘Core Earnings’ and GAAP” of this Item 7.
The following tables show “Core Earnings” for each business segment and our business as a whole along
with the adjustments made to the income/expense items to reconcile the amounts to our reported GAAP results as
required by GAAP and reported in “Note 16 — Segment Reporting.”
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