Fitch Assigns Top ABS Seller/Servicer Rating to Sallie Mae, Inc.NEW YORK New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of -- Fitch Ratings Fitch Ratings An international rating agency for financial institutions, insurance companies, and corporate, sovereign, and municipal debt. Fitch Ratings has headquarters in New York and London and is wholly owned by FIMALAC of Paris. assigns Sallie Mae Sallie Mae: see SLM Corporation. , Inc. a seller/servicer rating of 'ABPS/S1 flat' for FFELP FFELP Federal Family Education Loan Program loan origination and servicing. The one '1' represents the highest attainable rating. Fitch also reviewed Sallie Mae's operations with respect to Private Student Loan origination and servicing and also found the operations to be high quality. However, a formal rating will not be assigned until Fitch has reviewed a wider array of originators and servicers in this evolving sector. Sallie Mae, Inc is a wholly owned subsidiary Wholly Owned Subsidiary A subsidiary whose parent company owns 100% of its common stock. Notes: In other words, the parent company owns the company outright and there are no minority owners. of SLM Corporation (NYSE NYSE See: New York Stock Exchange : SLM See service level management system and spatial light modulator. ). The ratings are based on a highly experienced management and support team, economies of scale that result from being the largest player in the student loan market, effective and appropriate use of technology, and thorough risk management and quality control. The Student Loan Marketing Association was initially created in 1972 by Congress as a government sponsored enterprise (GSE GSE general somatic efferent system. ) and a secondary market purchaser of government guaranteed student loans. In December 2004, Sallie Mae successfully completed the wind-down of its GSE, four years ahead of schedule. Sallie Mae is the nation's largest originator, servicer, and collector of FFELP and private educational loans with a managed loan portfolio of $105.24 billion and $15.39 billion, respectively, as of September 2005. Sallie Mae's strengths include a strong, effective origination platform with diversified products, a close working relationship with more than 6,000 colleges and universities, and its 400-plus marketing staff. Sallie Mae has a strong track record of successfully integrating strategically acquired entities. In 2004, Sallie Mae acquired Southwest Student Services and Student Loan Finance Association, with student loan portfolios of $4.8 billion and $1.4 billion, respectively. The company also has an active and flexible consolidation loan origination program with a dedicated call center to handle outbound and inbound calls. The availability of state-of-the-art technology for origination, customer services, payment processing, investor reporting, and risk management also contributes to the top-tier seller/servicer rating. Sallie Mae's origination and servicing operations are strong due to several factors: sophisticated account maintenance applications and web technology, highly automated and efficient collection efforts, highly automated document handling process, and extraordinary employee oversight and development programs. These factors were all demonstrated when tested by an extraordinary increase in workflow that allowed the company to process 6.5 times the previous year's volume of consolidation loan applications in June 2005. Sallie Mae is an active participant in the securitization Securitization The process of creating a financial instrument by combining other financial assets and then marketing them to investors. Notes: Mortgage backed securities are a perfect example of securitization. May also be spelled as "securitisation. market. Since its first securitization of FFELP loans in 1995 and private educational loans in 2002, the company has issued $132.66 billion and $10.76 billion asset-backed securities, respectively. Its current share in the student loan securitization market is approximately 40%. All the series are meeting or exceeding Fitch's performance expectations. Fitch rates ABS seller/servicers on a scale of 1 to 5, with 1 (no '1+') being the highest rating. Within each of these rating levels, Fitch further differentiates ratings by plus (+) and minus (-) as well as the flat rating. For further information about Fitch ABS seller/servicer ratings, refer to the report titled 'Rating ABS Seller/Servicers: Credit Where Credit Is Due,' dated Sept. 14, 2004 and 'Rating ABS Seller/Servicers: Student Loan Addendum,' dated March 9, 2005, available on the Fitch Ratings web site at www.fitchratings.com. Fitch's rating definitions and the terms of use Terms of Use are rules set up by the owner of an intellectual property or service to govern how they may be legally used. In many cases, terms of service are used as a contractual agreement between a company and users of a service they provide. of such ratings are available on the agency's public site, www.fitchratings.com. Published ratings, criteria and methodologies are available from this site, at all times. Fitch's code of conduct, confidentiality, conflicts of interest, affiliate firewall, compliance and other relevant policies and procedures Policies and Procedures are a set of documents that describe an organization's policies for operation and the procedures necessary to fulfill the policies. They are often initiated because of some external requirement, such as environmental compliance or other governmental are also available from the 'Code of Conduct' section of this site. |
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