USA Funds Staff Profile: A Career of Protecting Borrowers, Taxpayers

When Kevin Tharp joined USA Funds^®, he did so thinking he'd stay only briefly. His work in the mailroom gave him a foot in the door at a company a friend had recommended, but he figured he'd leave when something else was available.

A quarter-century later, Tharp has long since forgotten about that "something else" he'd been seeking. He's still with USA Funds, but today he focuses his attention on keeping borrowers out of default as USA Funds' manager of delinquency and default oversight.

"I've got to be honest," says Tharp. "I love working here. This job gives me the opportunity to work with the people in the student-loan community and to tackle the challenge of the issues of delinquency and default."

Tharp has held his current position for three years, capping many years of experience in the areas of default prevention and collections. He puts his knowledge to work in overseeing the efforts of USA Funds' guarantor-servicer, Sallie Mae, as it helps borrowers resolve loan-payment problems and collects on defaulted education-loan accounts. He advises USA Funds Services' team of debt-management consultants and the loan-portfolio staff.

He also manages projects such as USA Funds Debt Manager^SM, a Web-based default-prevention tool that will bolster schools' default-prevention efforts by assisting them in contacting their student-loan borrowers. USA Funds Debt Manager is slated for release in spring 2005. Additionally, Tharp represents USA Funds in a number of trade associations, including the National Council of Higher Education Loan Programs, for which he is a member of the debt-management committee.

Tharp's work helps to ensure that borrowers successfully repay their education loans, protecting them from the consequences of default and defending the federal fiscal interest.

During the 2004 fiscal year, USA Funds resolved more than 1 million past-due education-loan accounts, thereby averting nearly $12 billion in potential loan defaults. USA Funds achieved a cure rate of 93.62 percent of the past-due education-loan accounts on which education lenders requested USA Funds' assistance. USA Funds' annual default rate declined to 1.13 percent from the 2003 rate of 1.37 percent.

Default-collection efforts led to USA Funds' recovery of nearly $1.1 billion on behalf of federal taxpayers in fiscal 2004. USA Funds also increased by 43 percent the dollars of loan defaults resolved through loan rehabilitation. During the past year, USA Funds recovered nearly $370 million through loan rehabilitation.

"Borrowers who are having trouble repaying their loans may have fallen into hard times, and they've gotten behind," Tharp says. "We work to provide them with a resolution. To play a major role in that is very rewarding."