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Unfunded Loan Commitments
 3 Months Ended
Mar. 31, 2021
Credit Loss [Abstract]  
Unfunded Loan Commitments Unfunded Loan Commitments
When we approve a Private Education Loan at the beginning of an academic year, that approval may cover the borrowing for the entire academic year. As such, we do not always disburse the full amount of the loan at the time of such approval, but instead have a commitment to fund a portion of the loan at a later date (usually at the start of the second semester or subsequent trimesters). We estimate expected credit losses over the contractual period in which we are exposed to credit risk via a contractual obligation to extend credit, unless that obligation is unconditionally cancellable by us. See Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements, Note 2, “Significant Accounting Policies - Allowance for Credit Losses 2020 — Off-Balance Sheet Exposure for Contractual Loan Commitments” in our 2020 Form 10-K for additional information.
At March 31, 2021, we had $457 million of outstanding contractual loan commitments that we expect to fund during the remainder of the 2020/2021 academic year. The tables below summarize the activity in the allowance recorded to cover lifetime expected credit losses on the unfunded commitments, which is recorded in “Other Liabilities” on the consolidated balance sheets, as well as the activity in the unfunded commitments balance.
Three Months Ended March 31,
20212020
AllowanceUnfunded CommitmentsAllowanceUnfunded Commitments
Beginning Balance$110,044 $1,673,018 $2,481 $1,910,603 
Day 1 adjustment for the adoption of CECL— — 115,758 — 
Balance at January 1110,044 1,673,018 118,239 1,910,603 
Provision/New commitments - net(1)
40,197 843,161 49,561 834,946 
Other provision items(3,994)— 3,982 — 
Transfer - funded loans(2)
(126,880)(2,058,726)(142,075)(2,295,742)
Ending Balance$19,367 $457,453 $29,707 $449,807 
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(1)     Net of expirations of commitments unused.
(2)     When a loan commitment is funded, its related liability for credit losses (which originally was recorded as a provision for unfunded commitments) is transferred to the allowance for credit losses.

The unfunded commitments disclosed above represent the total amount of outstanding unfunded commitments at each period end. However, historically not all of these commitments are funded prior to the expiration of the commitments. We estimate the amount of commitments expected to be funded in calculating the reserve for unfunded commitments. The amount we expect to fund and use in our calculation of the reserve for unfunded commitments will change period to period based upon the loan characteristics of the underlying commitments.