Organization and Business

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2019

Organization, Consolidation and Presentation of Financial Statements [Abstract]

Organization and Business

Organization and Business

SLM Corporation (“Sallie Mae,” “SLM,” the “Company,” “we,” “our” or “us”) is a holding company that operates through a number of subsidiaries and is the premier brand for college and continuous education.

While the Sallie Mae name has existed for more than 40 years, the company that operates as Sallie Mae today, SLM Corporation, was formed in late 2013 and includes its wholly-owned subsidiary, Sallie Mae Bank, an industrial bank established in 2005 (the “Bank”). On April 30, 2014, we legally separated (the “Spin-Off”) from another public company that is now named Navient Corporation (“Navient”),which is in the education loan management, servicing, and asset recovery business. We are a consumer banking business and did not retain any assets or liabilities generated prior to the Spin-Off other than those explicitly retained by us. We sometimes refer to the company that existed prior to the Spin-Off as “pre-Spin-Off SLM.”

The Bank was formed in 2005 to fund and originate Private Education Loans (as hereinafter defined) on behalf of pre-Spin-Off SLM. While the Bank first originated Private Education Loans in February 2006, pre-Spin-Off SLM continued to purchase a portion of its Private Education Loans from third-party lending partners through mid-2009. With some minor exceptions, the Bank became the sole originator of Private Education Loans for pre-Spin-Off SLM beginning with the 2009-2010 academic year, the first academic year following the launch of the Bank’s Smart Option Student Loan program in mid-2009.

Our primary business is to originate and service loans we make to students and their families to finance the cost of their education. We use “Private Education Loans” to mean education loans to students or their families that are not made, insured or guaranteed by any state or federal government. Private Education Loans do not include loans insured or guaranteed under the Federal Family Education Loan Program (“FFELP Loans”). The core of our marketing strategy is to generate Private Education Loan originations by promoting our products on campuses through the financial aid offices as well as through online and direct marketing to students and their families. The Bank is regulated by the Utah Department of Financial Institutions (the “UDFI”), the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (the “FDIC”) and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (the “CFPB”). We also operate Upromise, Inc. (“Upromise”), a save-for-college rewards program helping Americans save for higher education.