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(Loans) Subject: Loan Servicing Information - Nelnet Begins Servicing Direct Loans

Posted Date:June 23, 2010

Author: Jana Hernandes, Service Director, Operations, Federal Student Aid

Subject: Loan Servicing Information - Nelnet Begins Servicing Direct Loans

In Electronic Announcements posted on the Information for Financial Aid Professionals (IFAP) Web site on August 28, 2009 and September 16, 2009, we explained our transition to additional servicer support for Title IV loans that the Department of Education (the Department) owns and services. Currently, these federally-owned loans include William D. Ford Federal Direct Loan (Direct Loan) Program loans and Federal Family Education Loan (FFEL) Program loans purchased by the Department under the authority granted the Secretary in the Ensuring Continued Access to Student Loans Act (ECASLA) and through methods commonly referred to as a "PUT."

In early September 2009, the Department began assigning FFEL Purchased Loans to the four new servicers on our federal loan servicing team-FedLoan Servicing (PHEAA), Great Lakes Educational Loan Services, Inc., Nelnet, and Sallie Mae. Since that time, we have posted a number of Electronic Announcements in our "Loan Servicing Information" series that provide information about our servicing of federally-owned loans. In a March 26, 2010 Electronic Announcement, we provided an up-to-date overview of our servicing of federally-owned loans. This overview included a comprehensive Question and Answer document that addressed when the Department would assign Direct Loans as well as FFEL Purchased Loans to FedLoan Servicing (PHEAA), Great Lakes Educational Loan Services, Inc., Nelnet, and Sallie Mae. We informed the community that preparations for doing so were underway and that we expected to begin assigning Direct Loans to the four new federal loan servicers by August 31, 2010.

At this time, we are pleased to announce that we began assigning Direct Loans to Nelnet today, June 23, 2010. This means that the Direct Loan Servicing Center (ACS) and Nelnet are the two federal loan servicers to which we currently will assign new Direct Loans. We anticipate that we will begin assigning Direct Loans to the other three servicers-FedLoan Servicing (PHEAA), Great Lakes Educational Loan Services, Inc., and Sallie Mae-in the coming weeks. We will inform the community of each servicer's start through an Electronic Announcement on the IFAP Web site.

As is true with any loans assigned to our federal loan servicers, Nelnet will correspond with each Direct Loan borrower upon assignment of a Direct Loan. In this correspondence, the borrower will be provided with required information about his or her new Direct Loan and information about how to contact Nelnet. Borrower and school contact information for Nelnet is also available on the IFAP Web site's Loan Servicing Centers for Students page and Loan Servicing Centers for Schools page, respectively.

In addition to the student or parent Direct Loan borrower receiving Nelnet's correspondence, Nelnet will be identified as the servicer of the borrower's Direct Loan in the National Student Loan Data System (NSLDS). Both the student or parent borrower and the school will be able to view the federal loan servicer code and name associated with each loan in the NSLDS. Q&A 3.1 in the March 26, 2010 Electronic Announcement includes NSLDS servicer identification information for all federal loan servicers and provides information about the availability of a school report that can be used in addition to individual lookups. Nelnet's NSLDS servicer identification information is as follows:

Servicer Name NSLDS Name GA Code Lender Servicer Code
NelnetDEPT OF ED/NELNET580700580

A school will also be able to view the federal loan servicer code and name associated with each Direct Loan via the Common Origination and Disbursement (COD) Web site. The school can access this information under the Person tab on the Web site's top menu bar by clicking on Servicer and then entering the Award ID or the Social Security Number (SSN).

We appreciate the community's ongoing support of our approach to servicing federally-owned loans and will communicate when other federal loan servicers begin receiving Direct Loans to service on our behalf.