Amidst COVID-19 Pandemic, Private Student Lenders Provide Support for Customers and Communities

Latest MeasureOne Private Student Loan Report Highlights Efforts to Assist Students and Families During Unprecedented Time

Delinquencies and Defaults Remain At Historic Lows Through March

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MeasureOne

Jun 16, 2020, 12:57 ET

SAN FRANCISCO, June 16, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- MeasureOne today released its Private Student Loan Report, an industry leading research report leveraging MeasureOne's custom analytics services. This 14th edition of the report again affirms that students and families continue to responsibly use private student loans to cover college costs. While 98% of families continue to successfully manage payments and less than 2% default, annually, relief efforts in response to the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in forbearance levels above 5%.

Private student loans, which are fully underwritten to assess creditworthiness and ability to repay, make up approximately 7.9% of total student loans outstanding as of Q1 2020. The remaining 92.1% of the $1.67 trillion in student loans are federal loans owned or guaranteed by the Department of Education.

The bi-annual report includes continuous contributions from the six largest student loan lenders and holders: Citizens Bank, N.A., Discover Bank, Navient, PNC Bank, N.A., Sallie Mae Bank and Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. In addition to these MeasureOne Private Student Loan Consortium members, this report includes data from 9 other student lender contributors. In total, these contributors represent the vast majority of in-school originations and a majority of the private student loans outstanding in the U.S. Additionally, as part of compiling this report, MeasureOne surveyed data contributors on relief efforts for private student loan customers due to the impacts of COVID-19.

In general, lenders have offered suspension in payments of up to 3 months, with interest accruing but typically not capitalizing, with the option to extend. Lenders generally follow an opt-in process for customers seeking assistance. Customers have a number of options to request assistance and most do not require any additional documentation to get relief. During the suspension of payments, lenders are not charging late fees, and lenders are not reporting these payments as missed or late to credit bureaus. Further, lenders report that co-signers and student borrowers are treated the same for purposes of the forbearances.

Lenders report that, for customers who have been affected by COVID-19 disruption, they have suspended involuntary collections efforts, such as filing collection lawsuits, conducting set-off, or pursuing wage garnishment.

In addition to their forbearance programs, lenders are helping their communities through a variety of efforts including donations to COVID-19 organized fund drives, delivering PPE to first responders or volunteering in activities that help community needs.

"The latest MeasureOne Private Student Loan Report continues to show losses and delinquencies both near historic lows through March, as the beginning of the COVID-19 crisis hit our economy," said Elan Amir, CEO for MeasureOne. "We are pleased to see lenders respond to the crisis by helping families during this unprecedented time."

The Private Student Loan Report ("Report") reflects data as of end-Q1 2020 for private student loans and does not include federal student loan data. Overall with the notable exception of forbearances, the Report finds that, consistent with prior quarters, delinquencies and defaults remain at or near historic lows. As of the end of Q1 2020, the report found:

Private student loan originations in AYTD 2019/20 (Q3 2019 to Q1 2020) was $9.00 billion, up 8.02% year-over-year.
Loans in distress (forbearance plus 30+ days past due delinquent as a percentage of repayment plus forbearance) were at 9.98% as compared to a peak of 18.55% in Q1 2009.
Loans in forbearance were 5.16% nearing the all-time high of 5.64% from Q3 2008 due to customer relief efforts by data contributors.
Early-stage delinquency (30 to 89 days past due) rate was 2.41% of loan balances in repayment (excluding forbearances as usual), and similarly the late-stage delinquency (90+ days past due) rate was 1.10%. Both are near historic lows.
Annualized defaults were 1.75% of loan balances in repayment and are near historic lows.
The total outstanding balance for private student loans represented in the Report was $65.42 billion (including in-school loans but excluding consolidation, refinance and parent loans).
Undergraduate loans accounted for 88.46% and graduate loans 11.54% of loans originated in AYTD 2019/20.

The full Private Student Loan Report is available for download at https://www.measureone.com/resources

About MeasureOne
In September 2019, MeasureOne introduced a new developer platform to drive innovation and new customer applications based on academic data. MeasureOne is now the leading API platform provider for academic data and predictive analytics. Using MeasureOne products, application developers across industries, including academic institutions, employment, lenders, marketing, residential real estate and insurance can leverage academic achievements to deliver compelling insights, products and services to emerging consumers. MeasureOne is headquartered in San Francisco. For more information about MeasureOne, visit www.measureone.com.

SOURCE MeasureOne