Loan-Delivery Enhancements Benefit Schools and Lenders

May 23, 2005, enhancements to the loan-delivery systems that support the USA Funds^® guarantee allow more flexibility for schools and lenders in administering their loan processes. USA Funds has outlined the following enhancements in prior issues of the USA Funds Education Access Report.

Enhancements for schools

• Eligible USA Funds school-customers can use the OpenNet loan-delivery system to add a new Stafford loan to a student's existing Stafford-loan scenario — either subsidized or unsubsidized — when a student obtains additional loan eligibility. The enhancement permits campus financial-aid-staff members to add the Stafford loan themselves, rather than making a phone call to initiate the change.
• Schools can request that the lender name commonly used by financial-aid staff and borrowers be the one displayed on certain OpenNet screens they view. This enhancement will prevent confusion in cases in which the lender's official name differs from the name that is most recognized on campus.

Enhancements for lenders

• With a spring-2005 OpenNet enhancement that builds on existing features of the e-mail-notification service and predefined reports, USA Funds' lender-customers now can print promissory notes in batches for loans that have been guaranteed and e-signed, rather than printing the promissory notes individually.
• To allow USA Funds' lender-customers to better serve their schools, OpenNet online update access will permit these lenders and lender-servicers to provide online updates to loan data, disbursement changes, loan cancellations and refunds, Stafford-loan reallocations, and the add-a-loan feature.
• Lenders and lender-servicers that receive enrollment information directly from the National Student Clearinghouse can request to discontinue receipt of USA Funds' enrollment and loan reports. This change expands on USA Funds' adoption of the Total Enrollment Reporting Process.

Enhancements that benefit schools and lenders

• OpenNet's Query and Reporting function will add fields for export and display, providing more options for school and lender reports.
• USA Funds' adoption of the Common Record: CommonLine file format enables organizations in the higher-education community to use the same terms and field names across programs, and eliminates the need to support multiple file formats.

For more information about the spring-2005 enhancements, or to find out more about the technical products supported by USA Funds, contact your USA Funds Services representative.