SLM pencola ai margini dell'IG... l'accesso al mercato delle cartolarizzazioni ha visto operazioni effettuate con la copertura della garanzia pubblica, altre senza... il futuro resta incerto...
SLM Corp. 'BBB-/A-3' Rating Affirmed, Removed From CreditWatch; Outlook Negative
- The likelihood that the U.S. Senate will vote on student lending
legislation in the near term has become increasingly uncertain.
- We have affirmed our ratings on U.S. student lender SLM Corp. and removed
them from CreditWatch.
- We believe it would be difficult for any proposed changes to take full
effect for the 2010-2011 school year.
NEW YORK (Standard & Poor's) Feb. 26, 2010--Standard & Poor's Ratings Services
affirmed its ratings, including the 'BBB-/A-3' counterparty credit rating, on
SLM Corp. The ratings were removed from CreditWatch Negative, where they were
placed July 23, 2009. The outlook is negative.
"The affirmation comes amid growing ambiguity as to the likelihood that
legislation affecting student lenders will be passed in the short term. The
political focus in Washington remains on other issues. At this point we
believe that it would be difficult to make legislative changes that would go
into full effect for the 2010-2011 school year given the administrative
challenges of shifting all schools to the Direct Lending Program in time,"
said Standard & Poor's credit analyst Adom Rosengarten. "Therefore we believe
SLM Corp. could be involved in some manner in the origination of federal
student loans for at least another year, limiting the immediate impact that
legislative changes would have on the company."
We also recognize the positive steps that SLM Corp. has taken to improve
its funding profile. The company has replaced its 2008 FFELP asset-backed
commercial paper facility with a new $10 billion multiyear facility. In
addition to the significantly lower cost of this new facility, SLM has reduced
refinance risk by extending the maturity on this facility to three years.
SLM has also signed an agreement with the Federal Home Loan Bank of Des
Moines allowing for borrowings backed by FFELP loan collateral. All new
private education loans are originated and held in Sallie Mae Bank, funded
primarily by brokered deposits until they can be term funded through the
securitization markets. Although brokered deposits have some wholesale
characteristics to them, we view this as higher-quality funding than warehouse
borrowings.
Finally, SLM has had limited but increasing availability to
securitization markets, both through Term Asset-Backed Loan Facility
(TALF)-eligible and non-TALF deals. In 2009, SLM completed approximately $6.0
billion in non-TALF securitizations for FFELP consolidation loans, and $1.5
billion in non-TALF securitizations for private education loans. The company
also completed almost $6.0 billion in TALF-eligible securitizations for
private education loans.
The negative outlook reflects the ongoing uncertainty related to the
future of SLM's business model. "We would assess the long-term impact on SLM
of legislation that eliminates SLM's ability to originate federal student
loans if such legislation were passed. This would include weighing the greater
focus the company would have on private education loans and taking into
account the credit risks and funding risks of this business against the
mitigating factors of SLM's fee-based businesses, including the growing levels
of servicing for the government that SLM will obtain through the U.S. Dept. of
Education servicing contract," Mr Rosengarten added.