Publication Date: May 2002
Bulletin ID: DLB-02-15
Summary: Direct Loan Promissory Note Acknowledgment Process
May 2002
DLB-02-15
Summary: Direct Loan Promissory Note Acknowledgment Process
Dear Partner,
This message is to address some miscommunications regarding how COD handles Direct Loan promissory note acknowledgements for the 2002-2003 award year.
COD Promissory Note Acknowledgment Process
Promissory notes are acknowledged as part of the Direct Loan origination record acknowledgement process. For each loan origination record received, COD uses student/borrower date of birth, SSN and the first two characters of the First Name to verify with the Loan Origination Center (LOC) whether a valid MPN exists prior to sending the origination acknowledgement back to the school. If a promissory note does exist at the LOC, COD will send an acknowledgement back to the school with a promissory note indicator of "A", indicating that a promissory note does exist and the loan is linked to a note. If a promissory note does not exist at the LOC, COD will send an acknowledgement file back to the school with a promissory note indicator of "P", indicating that a promissory note does not exist and the loan is not linked to a note.
Additionally, COD will send unsolicited promissory note acknowledgements to the school when the LOC receives a signed paper or electronic promissory note from a student for whom COD does not have a loan origination record. In these cases, COD will send a COD system-generated promissory note acknowledgement to the school with a promissory note indicator of "X", indicating that COD has not received an origination record for the student. These unsolicited promissory note acknowledgements are now being batched daily so that multiple unsolicited promissory note acknowledgements are sent to the school in one batch.
Production Issues and Resolutions
COD did experience some issues with promissory note acknowledgements during the first weeks of production. COD had erroneously sent to schools origination acknowledgements with a promissory note indicator of "P" for students who did in fact have a promissory note on file. This error occurred because COD had been attempting to match origination records with promissory notes at the LOC using Date of Birth, SSN and Last Name, (instead of First Name). This issue has been resolved. COD has re-sent promissory note acknowledgements to all schools who received an erroneous promissory note acknowledgement.
Additionally, COD had sent unsolicited promissory note acknowledgements one at a time or one per batch during the first weeks of production. COD is now batching these unsolicited promissory note acknowledgements so that multiple unsolicited promissory note acknowledgements are sent to the school in one batch.
Finally, some schools have had issues reading the promissory note acknowledgement file. It is believed that this difficulty may be the result of a change in the promissory note acknowledgement file record length from prior years. For the 2002-2003 award year, the promissory note acknowledgement file record length is 190 bytes; this is a one byte increase from prior years. Please validate that your system reflects the correct record length if you are experiencing problems.
We apologize for any confusion regarding the promissory note acknowledgement process with COD. If you have any questions, please contact the COD School Relations Center by telephone at 1-800-848-0978 for Direct Loan or by email at CODSupport@afsa.com.
We thank you for your ongoing partnership in the Direct Loan Program.
Sincerely,
Jane Holman
Acting Director, Title IV Delivery
Schools Channel