Sallie Mae
 | |
| Company type | Public (NYSE: SLM) |
|---|---|
| Industry | Education finance |
| Founded | 1972 |
| Headquarters | Reston, VA, USA |
Key people | Al Lord, Chairman C.E. Andrews, CEO |
| Products | Government guaranteed student loans Private student loans Consolidation student loans K-12 loans College savings plans |
Number of employees | 12,000 (2007) |
| Website | SallieMae.com Upromise.com |
SLM Corporation NYSE: SLM, commonly known as Sallie Mae, is the United States' largest college student loan company, managing more than $126.9 billion in debt for more than 10 million borrowers, and employing 12,000 individuals at offices nationwide.
The company primarily provides federally guaranteed student loans originated under the Federal Family Education Loan Program (FFELP) and offers resources to assist students, parents, and guidance professionals with the financial aid process.
History
The Student Loan Marketing Association was originally created in 1972 as a government-sponsored enterprise (GSE) and began privatizing its operations in 1997, a process it completed at the end of 2004 when Congress terminated its federal charter, ending its ties to the government. The company remains the country's largest originator of federally insured student loans. Through its specialized subsidiaries and divisions, Sallie Mae also provides debt management services as well as business and technical products to a range of business clients, including colleges, universities and loan guarantors.
In August 2006, Sallie Mae acquired Upromise, a company which provides rebates to buyers of certain brands, which can be applied to college savings accounts. Sallie Mae and Upromise plan to market comprehensive financial packages to parents and students, including investment plans, financial aid information, and student loans.
On April 16, 2007, Sallie Mae announced that an investor group led by J.C. Flowers & Co. signed an agreement to purchase Sallie Mae for approximately $25 billion (USD). Had the transaction completed, J.C. Flowers along with private-equity firm Friedman Fleischer & Lowe would have owned 50.2 percent of Sallie Mae, and Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase would each have owned 24.9 percent. Sallie Mae would have ceased to be a publicly traded company.[1] The deal fell through in September 2007, with the buyers blaming adverse changes to the business's outlook as a result of the College Cost Reduction and Access Act of 2007 and the tightening of global credit markets following the 2007 subprime mortgage financial crisis[2]. Sallie Mae subsequently began legal action, only to drop it in January 2008 upon completion of a $31 billion funding round, including funding from Bank of America[3].
Corporate information
Sallie Mae operates servicing centers in Gilbert, Arizona; Panama City, Florida; Indianapolis, Indiana; Mount Laurel, New Jersey; Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania; Killeen, Texas, and Whitewater, Wisconsin, as well as 71 other offices in the United States.
Sallie Mae is listed on both the Fortune 500 and the Forbes Global 2000. The company has been recognized as one of the 100 Best Corporate Citizens according to Business Ethics magazine and one of the top 30 companies for executive women by the National Association of Female Executives.
Corporate board
Al Lord is the CEO of Sallie Mae, with Mr. Andrews as President. Mr. Andrews succeeds Tim Fitzpatrick, who announced he was leaving Sallie Mae on May, 22, 2007. Mr. Fitzpatrick succeeded Albert Lord, who is Chairman of the Board of Sallie Mae. Mr. Lord joined Sallie Mae in 1981, took over as CEO in 1995, and led the company's privatization.
Social responsibility
Sallie Mae sponsors The Sallie Mae Fund, a charitable organization with a mission to increase access to higher education for America's students by supporting and starting programs and initiatives that help open doors to higher education. The Sallie Mae Fund prepares families and students for college and provides scholarship funding that focuses on minority, low-income, and "first in the family" students. Since 2001, The Sallie Mae Fund has awarded $10 million in scholarships to help 4,000 students enroll in college. That is $1 donated for every $12,690 under their management.
Through The Fund's work, Sallie Mae was named among BusinessWeek's Top 15 Corporate Philanthropists in 2004. The Washington Business Journal identified the company as the top local corporate philanthropist in 2005.[1]
Sallie Mae won the Ron Brown Award for Corporate Leadership in 2006. It was honored for three college-access programs developed by The Sallie Mae Fund: Latino College Access Campaign, Project Access: DC, and The Sallie Mae Fund Scholarship Programs.
The Sallie Mae Fund earned the 2007 Insight Award for Customer Advocacy in Financial Services (from Insight Forums, LLC). The award recognizes financial communications initiatives that proactively enable customers to make fully-informed choices.
Corporate Responsibility Officer has named Sallie Mae one of America's "100 Best Corporate Citizens" five times. Corporations (over 1,100 are evaluated) are selected according to community, governance, diversity, and environmental best business practices.
Controversies
A 60 Minutes segment (originally aired May 7, 2006) examined Sallie Mae, including its business practices.[2] A professor of law at Harvard Law School, Elizabeth Warren, who is also an expert on bankruptcy and an outspoken critic of consumer lenders, questions Sallie Mae's dual role as both lender and collector.[3]
In February, 2007, New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo launched an investigation into alleged deceptive lending practices by student loan providers, including The College Board, EduCap, Nelnet, Citibank, and Sallie Mae.[4] On April 11, 2007, Cuomo ended his investigation of Sallie Mae and announced that Sallie Mae had voluntarily agreed to change its lending standards to satisfy a new code of conduct for student loan practices established by Cuomo, and to donate $2 million (USD) to a fund devoted to educating college-bound students about their loan options. [5]
Many Internet sites allege problems with Sallie Mae customer service or multiple telephone calls each day, even to people who are not Sallie Mae borrowers or co-signers. Sallie Mae is extremely aggressive in its collection procedures.
On October 10, 2007, documents surfaced that Sallie Mae was attempting to force colleges to turn over students' personal information using the Freedom of Information Act as justification. The university involved, the State University of New York system, is expected to decline the request and then be forced to defend its position in court.
On December 19, 2007, Chairman Al Lord acted out in frustration during an earnings call with analysts, he ended the call with "There are no more questions. Let's get the fuck out of here." In addition, Al Lord also attempted to make light of the current situation by making a joke "You know that a company is doing poorly when metal detectors are used at investor meetings". Their stock price fell 21% during the same day.[4]
Subsidiaries
- Academic Management Services Corp. (Acquired 2003)
- Arrow Financial Services (Acquired Majority Interest September 2004)
- First Trust Financial
- General Revenue Corporation (Acquired January 2002)
- GRP Financial Services (Acquired August 2005)
- Nellie Mae (Acquired July 1999)
- Pioneer Credit Recovery Inc.
- Sallie Mae Bank
- Sallie Mae Home Loans
- Sallie Mae Inc.
- SLM Financial Corporation
- Southwest Student Services Corporation (Acquired October 2004)
- Student Assistance Corporation
- Student Loan Finance Association (Acquired November 2004)
- Student Loan Funding (Acquired July 7, 2000)
- Upromise (Acquired August 23, 2006)
References
- ^ Investor group to buy Sallie Mae for $25 billion. http://www.salliemae.com/about/news_info/newsreleases/04162007.htm.
- ^ JC Flowers team drops Sallie Mae bid
- ^ Sallie Mae drops takeover lawsuit
- ^ Lieber, Ron. (12-20-07) The Potty Mouth of a Student Lender's CEO. FiLife. http://blog.filife.com/the-potty-mouth-of-a-student-lenders-ceo/. Retrieved 1-7-08.