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Borrowings
 9 Months Ended
Sep. 30, 2025
Debt Disclosure [Abstract]  
Borrowings Borrowings
Outstanding borrowings consist of unsecured debt and secured borrowings issued through our term asset-backed securities (“ABS”) program and our Private Education Loan multi-lender secured borrowing facility (the “Secured Borrowing Facility”). For additional information regarding our borrowings, see Note 10, “Borrowings” in our 2024 Form 10-K. The following table summarizes our borrowings at September 30, 2025 and December 31, 2024.

September 30, 2025December 31, 2024
(Dollars in thousands)Short-TermLong-TermTotalShort-TermLong-TermTotal
Unsecured borrowings:
Unsecured debt (fixed-rate)$— $990,956 $990,956 $— $995,420 $995,420 
Total unsecured borrowings— 990,956 990,956 — 995,420 995,420 
Secured borrowings:
Private Education Loan term securitizations:
Fixed-rate— 4,404,267 4,404,267 — 4,617,743 4,617,743 
Variable-rate— 743,772 743,772 — 827,182 827,182 
Total Private Education Loan term securitizations— 5,148,039 5,148,039 — 5,444,925 5,444,925 
Secured Borrowing Facility— 700,000 700,000 — — — 
Total secured borrowings— 5,848,039 5,848,039 — 5,444,925 5,444,925 
Total$— $6,838,995 $6,838,995 $— $6,440,345 $6,440,345 

Long-term Borrowings
Unsecured Financing Transactions
On January 31, 2025, we issued $500 million of 6.50 percent unsecured Senior Notes due January 31, 2030. At September 30, 2025, the outstanding balance was $493 million.
On February 18, 2025, we redeemed $500 million of the 4.20 percent unsecured Senior Notes due October 29, 2025. The Senior Notes were redeemed at 100 percent of their principal amount, plus the accrued and unpaid interest thereon through the redemption date. As a result of the redemption, we recognized a $1 million loss on the transaction.
Secured Financing Transactions
The following table summarizes our term ABS fundings issued in the year ended December 31, 2024 and in the nine months ended September 30, 2025, in which we retained 100 percent of the residual class certificates and which are collateralized by pools of Private Education Loans. The transfer of these loans did not qualify for sale treatment and thus remain encumbered on our consolidated balance sheet.
SMB Private Education
Loan Trust		Date Closed
Loans
Transferred to
the Trust(1)
Notes
Issued		Gross Proceeds
Weighted Average Cost of Funds(2)
Weighted Average Life of Notes
 (in years)
(Dollars in thousands)
2024-C ABS TransactionMay 15, 2024$733,644 $668,000 $667,888 
SOFR plus 1.19%
5.36
2024-E ABS TransactionAugust 14, 2024944,645 868,000 867,743 
SOFR plus 1.42%
5.17
2024-F ABS TransactionNovember 6, 2024732,445 680,000 679,981 
SOFR plus 1.08%
5.09
Total 2024$2,410,734 $2,216,000 $2,215,612 
Loans encumbered at September 30, 2025, related to 2024 term ABS:$2,158,665 
2025-A ABS TransactionMay 7, 2025$576,908 $539,000 $538,889 
SOFR plus 1.49%
5.46
Total 2025$576,908 $539,000 $538,889 
Loans encumbered at September 30, 2025, related to 2025 term ABS:$561,734 

(1) Represents principal and capitalized interest.
(2) Represents SOFR equivalent cost of funds for floating and fixed-rate bonds, excluding issuance costs.
Secured Borrowing Facility
On June 13, 2025, we amended our Secured Borrowing Facility to increase the amount to be borrowed under the facility from $2 billion to $2.5 billion and extended the maturity. We hold 100 percent of the residual interest in the Secured Borrowing Facility Trust. The amendment extended the revolving period, during which we may borrow, repay, and reborrow funds, until June 12, 2026. The scheduled amortization period, during which amounts outstanding under the Secured Borrowing Facility must be repaid, ends on June 12, 2027 (or earlier, if certain material adverse events occur). The one-year revolving period plus the one-year amortization period results in a contractual maturity that is two years from the date of inception or renewal. At September 30, 2025, $700 million was outstanding under the Secured Borrowing Facility. At December 31, 2024, there were no outstanding short-term borrowings under the Secured Borrowing Facility.

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 September 30, 2025
(dollars in thousands)
Debt OutstandingCarrying Amount of Net Assets Securing Debt Outstanding
Short-TermLong-TermTotalLoansRestricted Cash
Other Assets,
Net(1)
Total
Secured borrowings:
Private Education Loan
term securitizations		$— $5,148,039 $5,148,039 $6,483,030 $163,186 $450,322 $7,096,538 
Secured Borrowing
Facility		— 700,000 700,000 834,497 29,955 82,637 947,089 
Total$— $5,848,039 $5,848,039 $7,317,527 $193,141 $532,959 $8,043,627 
As of December 31, 2024
(dollars in thousands)
Debt OutstandingCarrying Amount of Net Assets Securing Debt Outstanding
Short-TermLong-TermTotalLoansRestricted Cash
Other Assets,
Net(1)
Total
Secured borrowings:
Private Education Loan
term securitizations		$— $5,444,925 $5,444,925 $6,786,390 $173,892 $418,705 $7,378,987 
Secured Borrowing
Facility		— — — — — 98 98 
Total$— $5,444,925 $5,444,925 $6,786,390 $173,892 $418,803 $7,379,085 

(1) Other assets, net primarily represents accrued interest receivable and payable.

Unconsolidated Funding Vehicles
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, as a vertical interest, 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. We classified those vertical risk retention interests related to securitization transactions as available-for-sale investments, except for the interest in the residual class, which we classified as trading investments recorded at fair value with changes recorded through earnings. The following summarizes our Private Education Loan ABS transactions closed in the nine months ended September 30, 2025 where the respective VIEs were not consolidated.

SMB Private Education Loan TrustDate ClosedLoans Transferred to the Trust by Third-Party SellerDate Third-Party Seller Previously Purchased Loans from the Bank
Additional Loans the Bank Transferred to the Trust(1)
Gain on Sale for Additional Loans Transferred by Bank
(Dollars in thousands)
2025-B ABS transaction(2)
July 17, 2025$496,749 February 6, 2025$26,223 $2,315 
2025-C ABS transaction(2)
August 21, 2025$1,807,961 July 30, 2025$95,101 $5,353 
(1)The transfer of such additional loans qualified for sale treatment and removed these loans from our balance sheet on the settlement date of the transaction.
(2)Sallie Mae Bank sponsored the transaction and is the servicer and administrator.

The table below provides a summary of our exposure related to our unconsolidated VIEs.
September 30, 2025
December 31, 2024
(Dollars in thousands)
Debt Interests(1)
Equity Interests(2)
Total Exposure
Debt Interests(1)
Equity Interests(2)
Total Exposure
Private Education Loan term securitizations$643,446 $51,963 $695,409 $571,795 $53,262 $625,057 

(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 September 30, 2025. 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 nine months ended September 30, 2025, nor in the year ended December 31, 2024.
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 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 September 30, 2025 and December 31, 2024, the value of our pledged collateral at the FRB totaled $2.0 billion and $2.2 billion, respectively. The interest rate charged to us is the discount rate set by the FRB. We did not utilize this facility in the nine months ended September 30, 2025, nor in the year ended December 31, 2024.