Continued Access to Student Loans

The United States Congress passed H.R. 5715 - Ensuring Continued Access to Student Loans Act of 2008 which contains many provisions to ensure students and parents can borrow under the Federal Family Education Loan Program (FFELP) to help with college expenses for the 2008-09 academic year. Among the provisions, the bill allows the U.S. Department of Education (ED) to serve as a secondary market for FFELP loans, with ED purchasing loans from lenders to generate necessary capital for future FFELP loans. The bill is expected to be signed by President Bush shortly.  

At the recent ILASFAA Annual Conference, ISAC Executive Director Andy Davis assured attendees that "ISAC will continue to serve the loan needs of our Illinois students". Although we no doubt have made that commitment to the financial aid community on many other occasions throughout our long partnership, this year it carried particular significance due to the environment of uncertainty about the availability of student loans. Andy made the commitment prior to the passage of H.R. 5715, and now with the bill's passage, ISAC continues to take steps to ensure uninterrupted access to FFELP loans for students and families in Illinois.

One of the provisions in the H.R. 5715 involves the Lender-of-Last-Resort (LLR) Program and requires that ED designate guaranty agencies such as ISAC to act as lenders of last resort for schools unable to obtain a lender(s) to make loans to a significant number of its students. In addition to making preparations for ISAC to serve as an ultimate lender of last resort, we are working with our lending partners to respond to the ED directive that all guaranty agencies have an approved, up-to-date Lender-of-Last-Resort Program in place. The directive requires ISAC to survey lenders to identify those willing to serve as lenders of last resort for ISAC-guaranteed FFELP loans.
 
Additional information about these topics is available in the e-Library of collegezone.com. An overview of H.R. 5715 can be found in the Federal Information section. Andy's complete remarks made at the 2008 ILASFAA Conference, along with the PowerPoint presentation for the ISAC Update, are available in the Presentations section under Conference Handouts & Presentations.