Publication Date: February 2004
| DCL ID: | FP-04-01 |
Subject: Numbering of Dear Colleague/Dear Partner Letters for Financial Partners
February 2004
FP-04-01
Subject: Numbering of Dear Colleague/Dear Partner Letters for Financial Partners
Summary: This letter announces a simplification of the numbering system for Dear Colleague/Dear Partner Letters that are directed to program participants from the FFEL lending and guaranty agency community.
Dear Financial Partner:
For the reasons discussed below, beginning in January 2004, all Dear Colleague Letters and Dear Partner Letters that are intended for FFEL program partners (lenders, guaranty agencies, loan servicers, secondary markets, etc.) will be assigned a sequential code using a single identifier. This code will begin with the letters ‘FP’ standing for “Financial Partner” followed by the two-digit year identifier and a sequence number that will begin again each calendar year. Thus, this letter is numbered “FP-04-01” as it is the first letter of 2004.
In the past when we published a Dear Colleague Letter or a Dear Partner Letter for our FFEL partners we assigned the letter a code that was intended to differentiate between letters directed to FFEL lenders (Code “L”) and those for FFEL guaranty agencies (Code “G”). The alpha categorization of each letter was followed by a two-digit number that represented the year the letter was published and ended with a sequential number for that category of letter. Unlike other letters we publish, the ‘L’ and ‘G’ letters sequence continued into subsequent years. Thus, for example, the fifth letter published in 2003 that was general in nature was numbered GEN-03-05 while the fifth letter of 2003 that was directed to FFEL lenders was numbered L-03-242.
Because of the use of our Information for Financial Aid Professionals (IFAP) website, we feel it is time to simplify this coding system. An analysis of the last two year’s letters shows that 100% of the letters that were directed to our FFEL partners were coded as both “L” letters and “G” letters. Therefore, it makes sense to combine these letters as described above.
Thank you for your continued support of the Federal student assistance programs.
Sincerely,
Jeff Baker
Federal Student Aid