NEW YORK (AP) — Private student lender Sallie Mae spent $550,000 lobbying the federal government in the third quarter on issues including the implementation of last year's overhaul of financial regulations.
The amount spent in the latest quarter is up slightly from the $530,000 the company spent in the previous quarter, but down 13 percent from the $630,000 the company spent in the year ago period, according to disclosure reports.
Sallie Mae, formally known as SLM Corp., is based in Newark, Del.
The filing disclosure did not specify which aspects of Dodd-Frank, the Wall Street overhaul passed last year, the company lobbied. But the omnibus law included the creation of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which is charged with policing the financial products marketed to consumers. The agency was also mandated with issuing a report to Congress on the private student lending industry by July of next year.
To meet that requirement, the agency announced this month that it would begin collecting feedback from the public on issues borrowers might run into with private student loans. An official with the CFPB noted at the time that the industry is one of the least understood in the consumer credit market.
Salle Mae noted in a statement that the company "has been in constructive dialogue with the CFPB since its inception." The company also noted that it consistently recommends that students use private loans to bridge funding gaps only after federal loans have been exhausted.
Private student loans are issued by banks and tend to have higher, variable interest rates than the loans issued by the U.S. Department of Education. They also do not come with the same guaranteed protections, such as deferment for unemployment or economic hardship.
Sallie Mae also lobbied the government on Title IV of the Higher Education Act, which covers the government's federal student financial aid programs, the federal budget and taxes.
Between July and September, Sallie Mae lobbied Congress, the Federal Deposit Insurance Commission, Federal Reserve System and Treasury Department.
Lobbyists are required to disclose activities that could influence members of the executive and legislative branches, under a federal law enacted in 1995. Sallie Mae disclosed its third-quarter spending in a report it filed Oct. 20 with the House clerk's office.
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