Fitch Publishes Presale Report on Straight-A Funding LLC Student Loan ABCP Program

NEW YORK - (Business Wire) Fitch Ratings has published a presale report describing the student loan short-term notes (SLST notes) issued by Straight-A Funding, LLC's (Straight-A) ABCP program. Straight-A's fully-supported ABCP program is being created pursuant to the Ensuring Continued Access to Student Loans Act (ECASLA or the Act). Earlier this year, Fitch issued a press release indicating that it expects to rate the notes 'F1+'. The expected rating is based on the application of Fitch's ABCP criteria, the full credit and liquidity support mechanism provided by the Federal Financing Bank (FFB), the quality of assets being purchased, the legal structure and the program's administrative support.

On Oct. 7, 2008, the Bush Administration extended ECASLA for one year. Among other provisions, the Act grants lenders the option to put student loans to the Department of Education under certain conditions. Straight-A will be one of a number of initiatives that have been implemented under the Act by the U.S. Departments of Education and Treasury together with the Office of Management and Budget. The government's stated intention is to continue to provide families with access to federally guaranteed student loans. As conditions to participating in the ABCP program, student loan lenders generally agree to originate and disburse, or acquire government guaranteed student loans and conduct activities constituting a continued participation in FFELP within a twenty-four month period after selling or pledging loans to the program.

Through its ABCP program, Straight-A may issue two series of SLST notes (Series-1 and Series-2). Series-1 SLST notes may be issued with expected maturities of up to 90 days and legal final maturities on the 3rd business day following the expected maturity. Series-2 SLST notes may be issued with expected maturities of up to 90 days and legal final maturities on the seventh business day following the expected maturity. The proceeds of the issuance will be used to fund the purchase of 'AAA' rated funding notes backed by FFELP student loans. The funding notes will be issued by special purpose vehicles sponsored by student loan lenders.

SLST noteholders will benefit from full credit and liquidity support provided by the FFB. The FFB is a U.S. government corporation. The support mechanisms will be sized to cover the face amount of SLST notes being funded by the borrowing plus any interest accrued and to accrue to the legal final maturity of the notes. Further, Straight-A has entered into a put agreement with the Department of Education (the Department) whereby, following the occurrence of certain events (among them being a failure by the liquidity provider to make a liquidity funding), Straight-A will put student loans to the Department, and the Department is obligated to purchase them 45 days after receipt of notice of the put.

The program is being arranged by Citigroup Global Markets Inc and Morgan Stanley & Co. Incorporated. The Bank of New York Mellon will act as the conduit administrator. The program's manager has yet to be determined.

Fitch's rating definitions and the terms of use of such ratings are available on the agency's public site, www.fitchratings.com. Published ratings, criteria and methodologies are available from this site, at all times. Fitch's code of conduct, confidentiality, conflicts of interest, affiliate firewall, compliance and other relevant policies and procedures are also available from the 'Code of Conduct' section of this site.

Fitch Ratings, New YorkKevin Corrigan, +1-212-908-9156Darryl

Osojnak, +1-212-908-0602Michael

Dean, +1-212-908-0556

Dina Meireles, +1-212-908-0897

Media RelationsSandro Scenga, +1-212-908-0278

sandro.scenga@fitchratings.com

Student Loans Are Getting Denied Due To Bad Credit

by Tim Beachum

Ask any high school senior what their credit score is and they will reply with a Huh? After all this response should be too surprising. Most high school seniors are to busy for trivial things such as credit scores and student loans. Then the flags go up when they find out that do to their poor credit scores they cannot get a standard student loan. This is the point where most students begin to get discouraged.

If you should find yourself in this predicament the first thing that you should do is start hunting down a co-signer. In most cases you are met with rejection when you approach someone to be a co-signer. However when asking someone to co-sign for a student loan they are usually a little more acceptable. Make sure that you approach your prospect with your career plans in hand.

Do not take locating a cosigner lightly. This option is extremely advantageous to you. If you do happen to find a cosigner lender will take their credit history into consideration instead of yours. What this translates out to mean for you is lower interest rates. If a young student has a poor credit rating this may very well be their best option.

Ok its a swing and a miss You give it your best shot and you still cannot find a qualified co-signer. You next best option for a student loan is to contact banks as well as other lending institutions. Your goal by doing so is to find out if there are any alternative methods of financing your education. Many times these lending institutions will have a high interest rate solution. I bet you seen that one coming a mile away!

Once you finally find a loan that works for your situation dont start to think about it to deeply. Thinking about those high interest rates is not where your focus needs to be at this point in your life. Look at it this way - most college courses take 4-5 years for a student to complete. This is more than enough time for you to reestablish your credit at which time you can refinance your high interest rate loan for one with a much lower rate.

There is one more option I would like to make you aware of. That option is known as a combination loan or a combo loan. What it does is allows the student to consolidate all of their debts and apply for one big loan that will cover everything. By using the combination technique chances are you will end up with a fairly lower interest rate.

Hold on a second! Stop the presses! I almost forgot about two loans that are primarily geared towards those that may be having some financial hardships. Those loans are known as the Stafford Loan and The Perkins Loan.

It is important to keep in mind that even in a worse case scenario, obtaining a student loan or a scholarship is nothing more than a numbers game. If you were to go online and apply for every student loan and scholarship program that you can find you will be approved for a few of them. You will be blown away at the number of available loans and scholarships that you can apply for. The fact of the matter is you just may end up getting a free ride regardless of your financial situation. The key to your success is to avoid being discouraged and to keep plowing forward.

About the Author:Before you do anything regarding your bad credit student loan make sure you check out Tim Beachum’s website Bad Credit Student Loans website. You can get a unique content version of this article from the Uber Article Directory.