Latest MeasureOne Report Again Confirms Students and Families Successfully Managing Private Student Loans

Originations Increase 5.6 Percent, Defaults at Lowest Level Since 2008

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Jun 27, 2017, 14:45 ET

SAN FRANCISCO, June 27, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- MeasureOne, a higher education data and analytics firm focused on the $1.4 trillion-dollar student loan market, today released its semiannual Private Student Loan Report showing families continue to successfully manage private student loans. Specifically, MeasureOne data shows delinquency and defaults near historic lows while originations for private student loans increased by approximately 5.6 percent year over year.

The current report shows that, by all key metrics; including percentage of loans in repayment, delinquency rates, and charge-off rates, private student loans have exhibited strong and consistent improvement over the last eight years since the economic recession and now appear to be settling at or near historic lows.

"Student loan performance is at its strongest point in eight years. All signs indicate a very stable and well performing private student loan market," said Dan Feshbach, CEO for MeasureOne. "It's important to have a healthy private student loan market for students and their families to turn to, giving them multiple financing options to achieve their education goals, whether for high school or adult-student learners pursuing a college degree or graduate students seeking an advanced degree," he said.

Private student loans, which are credit-based loans underwritten by lenders, make up roughly 7.7 percent of total student loans outstanding. The remaining 92.3 percent of the $1.4 trillion in total student loans are federal loans. Research in this report reflects private student loan data as of end-Q1 2017. It does not include federal student loan data.

Private Student Loan Report Data Highlights as of end-Q1 2017

Private student loan originations in academic year-to-date (AYTD) 2016-2017 increased 5.6 percent year over year to $6.91 billion. Undergraduate loans account for 88.8 percent and graduate loans account for 11.2 percent of these originations. About 93 percent of undergraduate private student loans that were originated in AYTD 2016-2017 had a cosigner.
Early stage delinquency (30 to 89 days past due) stands at 2.5 percent of loans in repayment and late stage delinquency (90 days or more past due) stands at 1.9 percent of total loans in repayment; at or near the lowest reported levels for a Q1 for both undergraduate and graduate loans since 2008.
Share of loans in forbearance declined to 2.2 percent.
Annualized defaults stand at 2.2 percent of loans in repayment, the lowest Q1 charge-off rate since 2008.

The total outstanding balance for private student loans at end-Q1 2017 was $63.95 billion, a growth of 0.5 percent year over year. Undergraduate loans account for 86.7 percent of outstanding balance compared to graduate loans at 13.3 percent.

The data in the report is sourced from the MeasureOne Private Student Loan Consortium, a data cooperative of lenders and holders of private student loans. Members include 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, nine new contributors including College Ave. and eight members from the Education Finance Council (Alaska Commission on Post-Secondary Education, Georgia Student Finance Commission, Iowa Student Loan, Kentucky Higher Education Assistance Authority, Rhode Island Student Loan, South Carolina Student Loan, Utah Higher Education Assistance Authority, and Vermont Student Assistance Corporation) provided data, making this report the most comprehensive to date. In aggregate, the participants contributing data to this report represent approximately 64 percent of all private student loans outstanding in the U.S.

The full MeasureOne Private Student Loan Report is available at https://www.measureone.com/psl.php.

About MeasureOne:
MeasureOne, founded in San Francisco with offices in Dallas, TX, specializes in data and analytics serving the $1.4 trillion-dollar student loan market, the second largest form of consumer credit in the U.S. The company developed the first and only Private Student Loan Consortium, a data cooperative of the nation's largest lenders and holders of private student loans. MeasureOne is applying data science and industry expertise to increase understanding of student lending, risk assessment, repayment performance, capital market investments and public policy development. For more information about MeasureOne, visit www.measureone.com.

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SOURCE MeasureOne