Sallie Mae 2015 Annual Report Download - page 47

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Enhance Customers' Experience By Further Improving Delivery of Products and Services
The Spin-Off provided us the opportunity to redesign our processes, procedures and customer experiences exclusively
around our Private Education Loan products, rather than accommodating the servicing of those products as well as FFELP and
Direct Student Loans serviced under direction of the Department of Education. In 2016, we will again focus on our new
servicing platform and processes to specifically target further simplifications regarding important transitions in the life cycle of
our customers’ Private Education Loan experience, including:
• Procedures followed and technology used by our customer service agents;
• Online functionality available to our customers; and
• Communications to our customers.
Sustain Consumer Protection Improvements Made Since the Spin-Off and Further Enhance Our Risk Oversight
Infrastructure
Since the Spin-Off, we have continued to undertake significant work to establish that all customer protection policies,
procedures and compliance management systems are sufficient to meet or exceed currently applicable regulatory standards. Our
redesigned SCRA processes and procedures have now received the approval of the DOJ and we expect all required restitution
activities under the FDIC Consent Order and DOJ Consent Order will be completed in 2016. In 2014, we engaged a third-party
firm to conduct independent audits of consumer protection processes and procedures, including our own compliance
management system. At this time, that engagement is ongoing and we are beginning our second full cycle of those audits. To
date, these audits have produced no high risk findings. Our goal is to sustain the improvements implemented to date and
consistently comply with or exceed regulatory standards while continuing to improve our customers’ experience and
satisfaction levels.
We must also further embed the Enterprise Risk Management disciplines throughout our organization and execute our
initial DFAST submission.
Successfully Launch One or More Complementary New Products to Increase Level of Engagement With Customers.
In 2015, our management team gave consideration to beginning to expand the suite of products we provide to
customers. Given our limited time and experience with our new originations platform and servicing capabilities, we prioritized
opportunities to focus first on those that can leverage our core competencies and capabilities, rather than require the
development or acquisition of new or alternative ones. For example, we will leverage our experience with our Smart Option
Student Loan products to launch a Parent Loan program designed for parents who wish to separately finance their children’s
education, rather than cosign loans with their children. We believe there is a market for this product that is separate from the
Smart Option Student Loan market, and we believe our product will be a competitive alternative to PLUS loans being offered
by the Department of Education. This product complements our portfolio of Private Education Loan offerings, but is not
expected to have a material impact on 2016 earnings.
We will also be exploring other product opportunities in 2016. In this process, we also place a high premium on designing
and launching products that will be easily understood and attractive to our customers. Any activity in 2016 will focus on
success of implementation, and we are not forecasting significant contributions to our originations, revenues or net income from
any potential new products in 2016.
Manage Operating Expenses While Improving Efficiency
We will continue to measure our effectiveness in managing operating expenses by monitoring our efficiency ratio. Our
efficiency ratio will be calculated by dividing our total expenses, excluding restructuring costs and other reorganization
expenses, by net interest income (before provision for credit losses) and other income, excluding gains on sales of loans, net.
We expect this ratio to decline steadily over the next several years as the number of loans on which we earn either net interest
income or servicing revenue grows to a level commensurate with our loan origination platform and we control the growth of
our expense base.