Debt-Management Perspectives

USA Funds Prevents $15.8 Billion in Potential Student-Loan Defaults
USA Funds^® announced that its default-prevention efforts averted a record of nearly $15.8 billion in potential student-loan defaults during the fiscal year ending Sept. 30, 2006. Read more.

USA Funds Update

USA Funds Lists Top-100 Lenders
USA Funds lists the top-100 lenders of USA Funds-guaranteed loans for the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, 2006. Read the list.

Tech Talk

Loan-Maintenance Enhancements Benefit Schools and Lenders
Recent enhancements to the loan-delivery systems that support the USA Funds guarantee allow schools more flexibility in maintaining their loan records, and provide lenders with a new delivery option for the Loan Transaction Statement. Read more.

Financial-Aid Administrators Can Help Shape Meteor Software Enhancements
Financial-aid administrators will have two opportunities to provide direct input to members of the Meteor Project team as it begins development of the next release of Meteor software. Learn more.

USA Funds Technology-Initiatives Director Named to Meteor Steering Committee
Brian Allison, USA Funds director of technology initiatives, was named a member of the new Meteor Steering Committee. The committee will provide strategic direction for the Meteor Project, a collaborative student-loan-industry effort coordinated through the National Council of Higher Education Loan Programs to retrieve and aggregate student-financial-award information for financial-aid professionals and borrowers. The group also will provide guidance to the NCHELP board of directors and staff and the Meteor advisory team.

Operations Bulletin

Department Offers List of Distance-Education-Accrediting Agencies
The Higher Education Reconciliation Act of 2006 stipulates that, to be Title-IV-programs-eligible, educational programs that include distance-education components must be accredited by agencies that have the accrediting of distance education in their scope. The U.S. Department of Education offers a list of the agencies that currently meet that criterion. Schools may confirm the status of their accrediting agencies by reviewing the list.