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| SLM > SEC Filings for SLM > Form 10-Q on 8-May-2009 | All Recent SEC Filings |
8-May-2009
Quarterly Report
FORWARD-LOOKING AND CAUTIONARY STATEMENTS
This quarterly report contains forward-looking statements and information based on management's current expectations as of the date of this document. Statements that are not historical facts, including statements about our beliefs or expectations and statements that assume or are dependent upon future events, are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are subject to risks, uncertainties, assumptions and other factors that may cause actual results to be materially different from those reflected in such forward-looking statements. These factors include, among others, the occurrence of any event, change or other circumstances that could give rise to our ability to cost-effectively refinance asset-backed financing facilities due April 2010, (collectively, the "2008 Asset-Backed Financing Facilities"), including any potential foreclosure on the student loans under those facilities following their termination; increased financing costs; limited liquidity; any adverse outcomes in any significant litigation to which we are a party; our derivative counterparties terminating their positions with the Company if permitted by their contracts and the Company substantially incurring additional costs to replace any terminated positions; changes in the terms of student loans and the educational credit marketplace (including changes resulting from new laws, such as any laws enacted to implement the Administration's 2010 budget proposals as they relate to the Federal Family Education Loan Program ("FFELP") and regulations and from the implementation of applicable laws and regulations) which, among other things, may change the volume, average term and yields on student loans under the FFELP, may result in loans being originated or refinanced under non-FFELP programs, or may affect the terms upon which banks and others agree to sell FFELP loans to the Company. The Company could be affected by: various liquidity programs being implemented by the federal government; changes in the demand for educational financing or in financing preferences of lenders, educational institutions, students and their families; incorrect estimates or assumptions by management in connection with the preparation of our consolidated financial statements; changes in the composition of our Managed FFELP and Private Education Loan portfolios; changes in the general interest rate environment, including the rate relationships among relevant money-market instruments, and in the securitization markets for education loans, which may increase the costs or limit the availability of financings necessary to initiate, purchase or carry education loans; changes in projections of losses from loan defaults; changes in general economic conditions; changes in prepayment rates and credit spreads; and changes in the demand for debt management services and new laws or changes in existing laws that govern debt management services. All forward-looking statements contained in this quarterly report are qualified by these cautionary statements and are made only as of the date of this quarterly report is filed. The Company does not undertake any obligation to update or revise these forward-looking statements to conform the statement to actual results or changes in the Company's expectations.
Definitions for capitalized terms used in this document can be found in the "Glossary" at the end of this document.
CRITICAL ACCOUNTING POLICIES AND ESTIMATES
A discussion of the Company's critical accounting policies, which include allowance for loan losses, premium and discount amortization related to our loan portfolio, fair value measurement, securitization and Retained Interest accounting, and derivative accounting can be found in the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2008.
Fair Value Measurements
On April 9, 2009, the Financial Accounting Standards Board ("FASB") issued three staff positions regarding fair value measurements and recognition of impairment. Under FASB Staff Position ("FSP") Financial Accounting Standards ("FAS") No. 115-2 and FAS No. 124-2, "Recognition and Presentation of Other-Than-Temporary Impairments," impairment must be recorded to income for debt securities if there
exists a fair value loss and the entity intends to sell the security or it is more likely than not the entity will be required to sell the security before recovery of the loss. Additionally, credit losses must be recorded through income regardless of the impairment determination above. Remaining fair value losses are recorded to other comprehensive income. FSP FAS No. 107-1 and APB No. 28-1, "Interim Disclosures about Fair Value of Financial Instruments," require interim disclosures of the fair value of financial instruments that were previously only required annually. Finally, FSP FAS No. 157-4, "Determining Fair Value When the Volume and Level of Activity for the Asset or Liability Have Significantly Decreased and Identifying Transactions That Are Not Orderly," provides guidance for determining when a significant decrease in market activity has occurred and when a transaction is not orderly. It further reiterates that prices from inactive markets or disorderly transactions should carry less weight if any to the determination of fair value. These standards are effective for the Company beginning April 1, 2009 with the ability to adopt early as of January 1, 2009. The Company chose not to early adopt these standards for the quarter ending March 31, 2009 as the Company believes these standards will not materially impact the financial statements.
Significant assumptions used in fair value measurements including those related to credit and liquidity risk are as follows:
1. Investments - Our investments primarily consist of overnight/weekly maturity instruments with high credit quality counterparties. However, we have considered credit and liquidity risk involving specific instruments. These assumptions have further been validated by the successful maturity of these investments in the period immediately following the end of the reporting period. In the fourth quarter 2008, we recorded an impairment of $8 million related to our investment in the Reserve Primary Fund based on an internal assessment of the collectability of our remaining investment. See "LIQUIDITY AND CAPITAL RESOURCES - Counterparty Exposure" for further discussion.
2. Derivatives - When determining the fair value of derivatives, we take into account counterparty credit risk for positions where we are exposed to the counterparty on a net basis by assessing exposure net of collateral held. The net exposure for each counterparty is adjusted based on market information available for the specific counterparty including spreads from credit default swaps. Additionally, when the counterparty has exposure to the Company related to SLM Corporation derivatives, we fully collateralize the exposure minimizing the adjustment necessary to the derivative valuations for our credit risk. While trusts that contain derivatives are not required to post collateral to counterparties, the credit quality and securitized nature of the trusts minimizes any adjustments for the counterparty's exposure to the trusts. Adjustments related to credit risk reduced the overall value of our derivatives by $(74) million as of March 31, 2009. We also take into account changes in liquidity when determining the fair value of derivative positions. We adjusted the fair value of certain less liquid positions by approximately $(231) million to take into account a significant reduction in liquidity as of March 31, 2009, related primarily to basis swaps indexed to interest rate indices with inactive markets. A major indicator of market inactivity is the widening of the bid/ask spread in these markets. In general, the widening of counterparty credit spreads and reduced liquidity for derivative instruments as indicated by wider bid/ask spreads will reduce the fair value of derivatives. In addition, certain cross-currency interest rate swaps hedging foreign currency denominated reset rate notes in the Company's on-balance sheet trusts contain extension features that coincide with the remarketing dates of the notes. The valuation of the extension feature requires significant judgment based on internally developed inputs. These swaps were transferred into Level 3 during the current period due to a change in the assumption regarding successful remarketing. These swaps had an unrealized loss of $(399) million in the current period.
3. Residual Interests - We have never sold our Residual Interests. We do not consider our Residual Interests to be liquid, which we take into account when valuing our Residual Interests. We use non-binding broker quotes and industry analyst reports which show changes in the indicative prices of the asset-backed securities tranches immediately senior to the Residual Interest as an indication of potential changes in the discount rate used to value the Residual Interest. We also use the most current prepayment and default rate assumptions to project the cash flows used to value Residual Interests. These assumptions are internally developed and primarily based on analyzing the actual results of loan performance from past periods. See Note 5, "Student Loan Securitization," to the consolidated
financial statements for a discussion of all assumption changes made during the quarter to properly determine the fair value of the Residual Interests, as well as a shock analysis to fair value related to all significant assumptions.
4. Student Loans - Our FFELP loans and Private Education Loans are accounted for at cost or at the lower of cost or fair value if the loan is held-for-sale. The fair value is disclosed in compliance with Statement of Financial Accounting Standards ("SFAS") No. 107. For both FFELP loans and Private Education Loans accounted for at cost, fair value is determined by modeling loan level cash flows using stated terms of the assets and internally-developed assumptions to determine aggregate portfolio yield, net present value and average life. The significant assumptions used to project cash flows are prepayment speeds, default rates, cost of funds, and required return on equity. In addition, the Floor Income component of our FFELP loan portfolio is valued through discounted cash flow and option models using both observable market inputs and internally developed inputs. Significant inputs into the models are not generally market observable. They are either derived internally through a combination of historical experience and management's qualitative expectation of future performance (in the case of prepayment speeds, default rates, and capital assumptions), or are obtained through external broker quotes (as in the case of cost of funds). When possible, market transactions are used to validate the model. In most cases these are either infrequent or not observable. For FFELP loans classified as held-for-sale and accounted for at the lower of cost or market, the fair value is based on the committed sales price of the various loan purchase programs established by ED.
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