Federal Updates

ED delays release of Master Agreements

Last Thursday, ED announced that it has delayed its posting of the Master Sales Agreement and the Master Participation Agreement that will be used to implement ED's loan purchase and participation plans under the Ensuring Continued Access to Student Loans Act (ECASLA). ED indicated during a webinar held last Tuesday that it would post the agreements the following day, but later determined that the documents required additional revisions based upon comments and questions raised during the webinar.

Delay does not impact filing of Notice of Intent to Participate
A lender may submit the Notice of Intent to Participate to ED even though the Master Sales Agreement and the Master Participation Agreement are not yet available. The Notice of Intent to Participate, provided as Appendix D to the Federal Register notice regarding the loan purchase programs published on July 1, 2008, serves as a lender's preliminary notification to ED that it is interested in participating in the new loan purchase and participation program, without obligating the lender to participate. Submission of the Notice of Intent to Participate also establishes the earliest disbursement date applicable to 2008-09 loans that a lender may include in either plan. A lender considering participation in the program(s) must submit the Notice of Intent to Participate by July 16 in order to include loans originated as early as May 1, 2008; if a lender submits the Notice of Intent to Participate after that date, only loans made on or after ED's receipt of the Notice of Intent to Participate are eligible for the program(s).

For more information
To view the announcement, visit the Information for Financial Aid Professionals (IFAP) Web site at http://www.ifap.ed.gov/eannouncements/070308DelayofAgreementsNotice2.html.

ED's July 1 Federal Register notice, including the Notice of Intent to Participate, is available at http://edocket.access.gpo.gov/2008/pdf/E8-14820.pdf.

  Back to Top

Official Notice of Proposed Rulemaking published

As announced in Shoptalk Online edition 460, ED recently released an unofficial Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) addressing various loan-related provisions enacted by the College Cost Reduction and Access Act of 2007 (CCRAA). On July 1, the official NPRM was published in the Federal Register, providing the public with a 45-day comment period. The NPRM is available online at http://edocket.access.gpo.gov/2008/pdf/E8-14140.pdf.

To submit comments online

• Go to the Federal eRulemaking Portal at www.regulations.gov.
• In the Comment or Submission box, enter the docket ID for this NPRM, ED-2008-OPE-0009, and click Go.
• To submit comments, click Send a Comment or Submission in the middle of the page.

Comments must be submitted no later than August 15. ED reminds commenters that all comments — including personal identifiers and contact information — will be available for public viewing on the Federal eRulemaking Portal, regardless of the submission method. ED also recommends that commenters clearly identify the specific section(s) of the proposed regulations that each comment addresses, and arrange comments in the same order as the proposed regulations.

More information
For questions about the recently released regulations, contact TG customer assistance at (800) 845-6267, or send an e-mail message to cust.assist@tgslc.org.

  Back to Top

Remaining 2008-09 interest rates released

Two categories of interest rates were announced at the end of June, as mentioned in Shoptalk Online edition 457. Interest rates for older PLUS and SLS loans are based on the weekly average of the one-year constant-maturity Treasury yield for the last calendar week ending on or before June 26. Interest rates for the HEAL portion of Federal Consolidation loans are based on the 91-day Treasury bill (T-bill) auctioned for the quarter ending June 30.

PLUS and SLS
Following are the interest rates for older PLUS and SLS loans, which are effective July 1, 2008, through June 30, 2009:

• 5.67 percent for loans first disbursed on or after October 1, 1992, but before July 1, 1998.
• 5.82 percent for loans disbursed on or after July 1, 1987, but before October 1, 1992.

HEAL Consolidation
Following is the interest rate for the HEAL portion of Federal Consolidation loans:

• 4.71 percent for loan applications received on or after November 13, 1997.

More information
To access TG's annual interest rate chart for all applicable interest rates, visit www.tgslc.org/policy/intrates.cfm.

  Back to Top