Overview
SLM Corporation, which operates as Sallie Mae, is a U.S. education-finance and consumer-banking company. Its core business is originating and servicing private education loans for students and families, including undergraduate, graduate, parent and career-training loans; it also offers FDIC-insured deposit products. The company’s business is focused on the United States.[1][2][3]
Sallie Mae describes its mission as “power confidence as students begin their unique journeys,” and frames its role as supporting students and families through higher education. For scale, in 2025 it originated about $7.4 billion in private education loans and reported approximately 1,788 team members, all based in the United States.[4][1][3][5] [1][2][4][3][5]
Products & services
SLM Corp’s private education-loan products include undergraduate and Parent Loans; career-training, nursing-school, and flight-school loans; graduate loans for fields including health professions, law, business, medicine, and dentistry; and postgraduate bar-exam, medical-residency, and dental-residency loans. Its Smart Option Student Loan offers interest-only, fixed-payment, and deferred repayment options. The first two require payments while the borrower is in school and during the grace period; deferred repayment does not. SLM also offers fixed- and variable-rate loans. [2026Q2 product-suite table] [2025 annual report paragraph]
For the six months ended June 30, 2026, private education-loan originations totaled $3.622 billion: 20% interest-only Smart Option, 33% fixed-pay Smart Option, 37% deferred Smart Option, and 10% Graduate Loan. These figures represent shares of originations, not revenue or earnings. [2026Q2 originations table] SLM also offers High-Yield Savings, CDs, Money Market, and SmartyPig Savings; its savings products include fixed-rate CDs with terms of 6–60 months, a money-market account with check-writing access, and goal-tracking savings. Its education-planning resources include scholarship search, calculators, and college-cost planning tools.[6][7][8][9][10] [11][12][13][13][13][13][13][13][13][13][13][13][6][7][8][9][10][6][7][8][9][10]
Geographic presence
SLM Corporation’s listed offices are in Newark and New Castle, Delaware; Salt Lake City, Utah; Indianapolis, Indiana; Newton, Massachusetts; and Sterling, Virginia. Its campus relationship team works with more than 2,100 higher-education institutions. The company’s 2025 annual report does not provide revenue by country or region, or an employee breakdown by location.[14][15][16] [14][15][16]
Business segments
SLM Corp reports one operating and reportable segment, encompassing the origination and servicing of private education loans and other education-related services. Accordingly, this is the company’s sole reportable segment; the company does not report separate segment contributions.[17]
For the six months ended June 30, 2026, the company originated $3.622 billion in private education loans. Its product mix was Smart Option interest-only loans, $738.0 million (about 20.4%); Smart Option fixed-pay loans, $1.181 billion (32.6%); Smart Option deferred loans, $1.322 billion (36.5%); and graduate loans, $381.1 million (10.5%). These are product categories within the single reportable segment, not separately reported business segments.[13] [17][13][13][13][13][13]
Company history
Congress established the Student Loan Marketing Association (SLMA) in 1972 as a government-sponsored enterprise, and it began operations in 1973. In the 1990s, the company began transitioning toward a private holding-company structure; a shareholder-approved reorganization took effect in 1997. It expanded through the acquisitions of Nellie Mae in 1999 and USA Group’s student-loan businesses in 2000.[18][19][20]
In December 2004, the federal charter was dissolved, completing the company’s privatization. Sallie Mae Bank began operations in 2005, and by July 2010 the company had ended federal student-loan originations, focusing on private education loans.[21][22][23]
SLM Corporation says the company now operating as Sallie Mae was formed in late 2013. Its separation from Navient was completed on May 1, 2014: Sallie Mae became a standalone consumer-banking business, while Navient retained the legacy education-loan-management and related businesses.[24][25] [24][18][19][20][21][22][23][25]
Sources
- SLM Corp — Full financial report (2025 Y)
- www.salliemae.com[3]
- www.salliemae.com[5]
- www.salliemae.com[6]
- www.salliemae.com[7]
- www.salliemae.com[8]
- www.salliemae.com[9]
- www.salliemae.com[10]
- SLM Corp — Presentation (2026 Q 2)[11]
- SLM Corp — Full financial report (2026 Q 2)[13][17]
- www.sec.gov[16]
- www.sec.gov[18]
- www.sec.gov[19]
- www.salliemae.com[20]
- home.treasury.gov[21]
- news.salliemae.com[22]
- www.salliemae.com[23]
- news.salliemae.com[25]
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