Great Lakes Higher Education Corporation was one of the largest student loan providers and guarantors in the United States.[1] Headquartered in Madison, Wisconsin, the corporation is non-profit. It was one of the four largest companies which service United States federal student loans: Great Lakes, Nelnet, Navient, and the Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency. In 2018, the loan servicing part of the organization was sold to Nelnet.
The company sometimes gives education-related grants,[2] [3] with a focus on increasing access to higher education.[4]
| Great Lakes Educational Loan Services, Inc. | |
| Type: | Subsidiary |
| Hq Location City: | Madison, Wisconsin |
| Hq Location Country: | United States |
| Industry: | Financial services |
| Products: | Student loans |
| Num Employees: | 1,800 |
| Revenue: | $230 million |
| Revenue Year: | 2017 |
| Parent: | Nelnet |
The former loan servicing arm of Great Lakes, the Great Lakes Educational Loan Services, Inc. guaranteed over $51 billion in loans under FFELP, and works with 6,000schools, 1,100lenders and 10,000,000borrowers.[5]
In order to replace their loan servicing contract with the United States Department of Education, which expired on June 16, 2019, Great Lakes decided in 2016 to make its bid for a new contract in cooperation with the competing student loan servicer, Nelnet.[6] In October 2017, Great Lakes Higher Education Corporation reached an agreement to sell off 100% of the stock of its subsidiary, the Great Lakes Educational Loan Services, Inc. to Nelnet.[7] The company was to be sold for $150 million, initially keeping CEO Jeff Crosby in charge, but with a plan of consolidating the companies together.[8] On February 7, 2018, Nelnet announced that it had completed the acquisition of Great Lakes Educational Loan Services, Inc..[9] The loan servicing operation is now a fully owned subsidiary of Nelnet, the combined company now servicing 42% of the total federal student loan debt.[10]