USA Funds^® supported a record volume of new education loans and achieved a record level of loan default prevention success during the fiscal year ending Sept. 30, 2007. USA Funds also enhanced its support of preparation for, access to and success in higher education.

• USA Funds’ volume of $25.8 billion in loans it guaranteed helped more than 1.7 million students and parents pay higher education expenses.
• The volume of USA Funds guaranteed Federal Stafford loans for students and Federal PLUS loans for parents of undergraduate students and to graduate and professional students grew to $15.6 billion, an increase of nearly 24 percent over the previous fiscal year.
• USA Funds guaranteed $10.2 billion in Federal Consolidation loans, which permit student- and parent-borrowers to bundle multiple federal education loans into a single loan.
• USA Funds’ 2005 cohort default rate fell to 4 percent from the 4.8 percent rate that USA Funds recorded for the previous cohort. USA Funds’ 2005 rate is well below the average of 4.8 percent for all education loan guarantors. Cohort default rates measure the percentage of all Federal Stafford loan borrowers entering repayment in a given federal fiscal year who default on their loans by the end of the following fiscal year.
• A team of more than 250 default prevention professionals, supported by USA Funds, successfully averted default on more than nine of every 10 seriously past due education loans, helping to prevent nearly $16.7 billion in potential loan defaults.
• Nearly 42,000 borrowers resolved their loan defaults through loan rehabilitation, restoring their good credit, with the assistance of USA Funds. The $400 million in loan rehabilitations represented 42 percent of USA Funds’ total loan default collections of $950 million.
• USA Funds awarded or supported more than $8.9 million in scholarships to help students pursue higher education during the 2007-2008 academic year. Included in this total are scholarships under the USA Funds Access to Education Scholarships^®  and USA Funds Scholars programs, and grants to national scholarship organizations.
• By providing financial and staff support to scholarship organizations’ fund-raising activities, USA Funds helped the American Indian College Fund, Hispanic Scholarship Fund and United Negro College Fund raise nearly $1.1 million in additional scholarship funding.
• USA Funds Debt Manager^® provided schools with easy access to their borrowers’ information, to design e-mail, mail or telephone strategies for contacting them. Nearly 680 schools are taking advantage of this Web-based tool that helps students and graduates stay on the path to successful education loan repayment.
• The year saw nearly 27,000 borrower counseling sessions conducted through USA Funds Loan Counselor^®. The suite of products helps schools meet federal requirements for loan counseling and simplify Stafford loan entrance and exit counseling for borrowers. Nationwide 108 schools offer exit counseling through USA Funds Student Loan Transition Guide^SM, which USA Funds introduced in 2007. Eighty-five schools use USA Funds Stafford Loan Guide^SM, which provides entrance counseling.

• USA Funds began testing an online version of its USA Funds Life Skills^® financial literacy program. Nationwide approximately 530 schools have implemented the USA Funds Life Skills curriculum, with 351 schools ordering printed materials in 2007.
• USA Funds introduced USA Funds Consejos, a program designed to encourage Latino middle school students and their families to prepare for and pursue higher education. USA Funds Consejos provides Latino students and their families information about the value of a postsecondary education, the education options available to them and the availability of financial aid.

Download a copy of USA Funds’ 2007 Annual Report. You’ll need Adobe Acrobat Reader to view and print the report.

Order a copy of USA Funds’ 2007 Annual Report. Download copies of USA Funds’ 2007 Annual Reports to the following eight states that USA Funds serves as designated guarantor of federal education loans, and to California and Florida:

Arizona.
Hawaii.
Indiana.
Kansas.
Maryland.
Mississippi.
Nevada.
Wyoming.