RALEIGH, N.C. – State Employees CU is expected to announced later today a new commitment to invest another $500 million in the state’s student loan program, making a total of $1.6 billion pledged this year to fund educational loans.
The credit union giant has already completed its prior pledge to buy $1.1 billion of bonds used to finance the loans.
The funds will be used to refinance and provide funding for student loans made through the College Foundation, Inc., a state agency that provides funding for federally guaranteed student loans. SECU’s investment is providing a portion of the funding for the 2008-2009 program, which is guaranteed by the North Carolina State Education Assistance Authority.
The effort by the $16 billion in one of several where credit unions are stepping into the void left by private lenders. Last month, 20 Connecticut credit unions pledged $18 million in low-rate loans for college students, and the month before that eight Illinois credit unions agreed to make $100 million in loans through the state’s student loan agency.
SECU is already one of the largest providers of post-secondary education funding in North Carolina by virtue of a $4 million-a-year scholarship program that awards one scholarship to every one of the state’s 355 public high schools and one to each of the state’s 58 community colleges.
