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.
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 operated through its SECU Foundation 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.
