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Borrowings
 3 Months Ended
Mar. 31, 2024
Debt Disclosure [Abstract]  
Borrowings Borrowings
Outstanding borrowings consist of unsecured debt and secured borrowings issued through our term asset-backed securitization (“ABS”) program and our Private Education Loan multi-lender secured borrowing facility (the “Secured Borrowing Facility”). For additional information regarding our borrowings, see Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements, Note 12, “Borrowings” in our 2023 Form 10-K. The following table summarizes our borrowings at March 31, 2024 and December 31, 2023.

March 31, 2024December 31, 2023
(Dollars in thousands)Short-TermLong-TermTotalShort-TermLong-TermTotal
Unsecured borrowings:
Unsecured debt (fixed-rate)$— $993,005 $993,005 $— $992,200 $992,200 
Total unsecured borrowings— 993,005 993,005 — 992,200 992,200 
Secured borrowings:
Private Education Loan term securitizations:
Fixed-rate— 3,390,494 3,390,494 — 3,585,254 3,585,254 
Variable-rate— 593,383 593,383 — 650,058 650,058 
Total Private Education Loan term securitizations— 3,983,877 3,983,877 — 4,235,312 4,235,312 
Secured Borrowing Facility— — — — — — 
Total secured borrowings— 3,983,877 3,983,877 — 4,235,312 4,235,312 
Total$— $4,976,882 $4,976,882 $— $5,227,512 $5,227,512 

Long-term Borrowings
Secured Financings at Issuance
The following table summarizes our secured financings issued in 2023. There were no secured financings issued in the three months ended March 31, 2024.

IssueDate IssuedTotal Issued
Weighted Average Cost of Funds(1)
Weighted Average Life
 (in years)
(Dollars in thousands)
Private Education Loans:
2023-AMarch 2023$579,000 
SOFR plus 1.53%
5.06
2023-CAugust 2023568,000 
SOFR plus 1.69%
4.93
Total notes issued in 2023$1,147,000 
Total loan and accrued interest amount securitized at inception in 2023(2)
$1,292,507 

(1) Represents SOFR equivalent cost of funds for floating and fixed-rate bonds, excluding issuance costs.
(2) At March 31, 2024, $1.17 billion of our Private Education Loans, including $1.09 billion of principal and $84 million in capitalized interest, were encumbered related to these transactions.
Consolidated Funding Vehicles

We consolidate our financing entities that are VIEs as a result of our being the entities’ primary beneficiary. As a result, these financing VIEs are accounted for as secured borrowings.
As of March 31, 2024
(dollars in thousands)
Debt OutstandingCarrying Amount of Assets Securing Debt Outstanding
Short-TermLong-TermTotalLoansRestricted Cash
Other Assets(1)
Total
Secured borrowings:
Private Education Loan term securitizations$— $3,983,877 $3,983,877 $5,279,994 $147,649 $300,115 $5,727,758 
Secured Borrowing Facility— — — — — 353 353 
Total$— $3,983,877 $3,983,877 $5,279,994 $147,649 $300,468 $5,728,111 

As of December 31, 2023
Debt OutstandingCarrying Amount of Assets Securing Debt Outstanding
Short-TermLong-TermTotalLoansRestricted Cash
Other
Assets(1)
Total
Secured borrowings:
Private Education Loan term securitizations$— $4,235,312 $4,235,312 $5,539,964 $149,412 $311,697 $6,001,073 
Secured Borrowing Facility— — — — — 1,066 1,066 
Total$— $4,235,312 $4,235,312 $5,539,964 $149,412 $312,763 $6,002,139 

(1) Other assets primarily represent accrued interest receivable.

Unconsolidated VIEs
Private Education Loan Securitizations
Unconsolidated VIEs include variable interests that we hold in certain securitization trusts created by the sale of our Private Education Loans to unaffiliated third parties. We remained the servicer of these loans pursuant to applicable servicing agreements executed in connection with the sales, and we are also the administrator of these trusts. Additionally, we own five percent of the securities issued by the trusts to meet risk retention requirements. We were not required to consolidate these entities because the fees we receive as the servicer/administrator are commensurate with our responsibility, so the fees are not considered a variable interest. Additionally, the five percent vertical interest we maintain does not absorb more than an insignificant amount of the VIE’s expected losses, nor do we receive more than an insignificant amount of the VIE’s expected residual returns.
2024-A Transaction
On March 13, 2024, we closed an SMB Private Education Loan Trust 2024-A term ABS transaction (the “2024-A Transaction”), in which an unaffiliated third party sold to the trust approximately $2.0 billion of Private Education Loans that the third-party seller previously purchased from us on February 1, 2024. Sallie Mae Bank sponsored the 2024-A Transaction, is the servicer and administrator, and was the seller of an additional $105 million of Private Education Loans into the trust. The sale of such additional loans qualified for sale treatment and removed these loans from our balance sheet on the settlement date of the 2024-A Transaction and we recorded a $7 million gain on sale associated with this transaction. In connection with the 2024-A Transaction settlement, we retained a five percent vertical risk retention interest (i.e., five percent of each class issued in the securitization). We classified those vertical risk retention interests related to the 2024-A Transaction as available-for-sale investments, except for the interest in the residual class, which we classified as a trading investment recorded at fair value with changes recorded through earnings.
The table below provides a summary of our exposure related to our unconsolidated VIEs.

March 31, 2024
December 31, 2023
(Dollars in thousands)
Debt Interests(1)
Equity Interests(2)
Total Exposure
Debt Interests(1)
Equity Interests(2)
Total Exposure
Private Education Loan term securitizations$521,263 $58,166 $579,429 $423,327 $54,481 $477,808 

(1) Vertical risk retention interest classified as available-for-sale investment.
(2) Vertical risk retention interest classified as trading investment.


Other Borrowing Sources
We maintain discretionary uncommitted Federal Funds lines of credit with various correspondent banks which totaled $125 million at March 31, 2024. The interest rate we are charged on these lines of credit is priced at Fed Funds plus a spread at the time of borrowing and is payable daily. We did not utilize these lines of credit in the three months ended March 31, 2024 nor in the year ended December 31, 2023.
We established an account at the FRB to meet eligibility requirements for access to the Primary Credit borrowing facility at the FRB’s Discount Window (the “Window”). The Primary Credit borrowing facility is a lending program available to depository institutions that are in generally sound financial condition. All borrowings at the Window must be fully collateralized. We can pledge asset-backed and mortgage-backed securities, as well as FFELP Loans and Private Education Loans, to the FRB as collateral for borrowings at the Window. Generally, collateral value is assigned based on the estimated fair value of the pledged assets. At March 31, 2024 and December 31, 2023, the value of our pledged collateral at the FRB totaled $1.4 billion and $1.6 billion, respectively. The interest rate charged to us is the discount rate set by the FRB. We did not utilize this facility in the three months ended March 31, 2024 nor in the year ended December 31, 2023.