July 18th, 2008 Frances P
Dear Diary,
That is what comes to mind when I think of writing a blog!
This is my first full month at Overture Technologies and I must say I am quite happy to be a part of such a dynamic, young, creative and talented team!!!
My goal is to sell a lot of Payment Planner software to colleges and universities so that I am able to put dog food on the table for my two favorite kids-Boston, 12 yr old Bassett Hound and Lexie, 4yr old Rat Terrier/Chi mix. All kidding aside-it is a great product designed to help navigate/educate the student borrowers through the sometimes overwhelming financial aid process. And not to mention the cost savings to the schools.
I had the privilege of attending the CCA conference in June for the school owners in Vegas last month. Vegas was great-you can eat a meal anytime of day and the gambling tables never close. I won $65 at the Black Jack table thanks to the help of my new boss, Mr. Don C. And Earl yelled out-now go sell some Payment Planners!!! I enjoyed working the booth with Don, Dave, Earl and Lori. We met some interesting folks-from a couple looking to purchase a school to owners of schools that I knew from my previous line of work, selling student loans. When the attendees were not on the golf course, we had decent traffic in the vendor area and Dave and Don worked their magic and talked to quite a bit of folks.
The NASFAA conference was held in Orlando, FL last week and unlike CCA where mostly the owners and higher up execs were there-we met with and saw FAD’s, loan managers and processors. I would say close to 1,000 folks were there. Our booth had a steady stream of traffic in the beginning and Dave and Don again got some good intel on leads. I personally got a couple of Payment Planner demo’s from it. We all looked quite sharp and professional in our branded clothes. Peter, Dave, Don, Earl, Jeff, Tammy, Lori, Gricel and myself were quite possibly the best looking vendor team there! hahah!
All kidding aside, Peter, Dave and Don were a good/strong presence to have and did their thing-talking to banks, lending institutions, prospects. The sessions were informative, the group dinners had a good attendance. Earl, Jeff and Tammy talked to a lot of folks and really checked out the exhibit hall-collecting collateral and getting a pulse on what every one was up too. Lori was instrumental in getting clients at the booth interested in Market Place and Payment Planner and had live demo’s showing at all times at our booth. Gricel, what an Angel. She is a keeper. She took care of every single logistic of the whole show. The ordering, the schedules, booth duty, talking to clients!
We were all tired when we took the booth down and had time to reflect. Sometimes it is hard to measure the value you gain by attending all these road shows; but they are enjoyable and you learn something new each time. Your company is only really talked about if you don’t show up!
I am glad to be a part of the team!
Francesca-sales
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July 11th, 2008 Emily W
To anyone familiar with Payment Planner, it is obvious that it is designed to facilitate student-school interaction throughout the financial aid process. Straightforward calculators, easy communication, and accessible information all help financial aid administrators guide students through the process of funding their education. What you may not know, however, is that Payment Planner can benefit the Admissions Office, in addition to the Financial Aid Office.
As a current college student- I just finished my freshman year- I can tell you that the thought of paying for college is overwhelming for many prospective students. This means that higher education—and by extension your particular school—is a less immediate reality, and thus a less viable possibility. But by helping “prospies” understand the financial aid process, schools can make these students better able to envision themselves at their institution. Payment Planner makes this possible.
As part of the Payment Planner package, schools are given the ability to share web based financial aid planning information with potential and newly admitted students, without giving them access to the school’s portal. Students can access Payment Planner and use all of its planning features to determine how to best pay for their college education. Better than visits to the Admissions or Financial Aid Offices, this option is online, available 24/7, and schools can prepare content to specifically address the needs of this population. Payment Planner can help prospective students understand how they are going to pay for the schools they apply to, giving them the information they need to make the best choices for them. Make your school a viable option by using Overture’s Payment Planner.
Contact an Overture representative to discuss how this feature can work for you and your prospective students!
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July 3rd, 2008 Emily W
You’d think that as a current college student (Wesleyan University, class of 2011) I’d have a vague understanding of the higher education financial aid process, but alas, that was not the case until I started my internship at Overture. Since I began here in May, I’ve immersed myself in the inner workings of the student loan business, from figuring out the difference between a lender and a loan provider, to witnessing the horrors of high interest rates, to learning the details of Overture’s student loan products. After countless hours of research (and editing user guides), I now emerge as your new blog writer, ready to inform you about Payment Planner and Student Loan Marketplace.
Coming from a college student, my perspective on the whole college funding process is slightly different than the one taken by my bosses (no offense to them, of course). Instead of thinking about preferred lender lists and minimizing credit damage, I’ve really tried to view things from the eyes of a student. Why would a rising freshman want their financial aid awards letter online? How is a student loan comparison site better than just walking into a bank and asking for a loan? Which is more important, learning about alternative loans or simply getting the loan process over with? Looking at them through this lens, I find Payment Planner and Loan Marketplace to be pretty compelling options for students and the schools they attend. My blog entries will probably convey this opinion.
Hopefully, my blog entries will help you learn about Overture’s higher ed products, in addition to the obvious goal of convincing you all to rush out and buy them. Enjoy!
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July 1st, 2008 Earl T
We just returned from our inaugural Career College Association Annual Meeting. Vegas was a great venue and the participants and vendors were very energetic and upbeat. We are live with our first career college, the Laboratory Institute of Merchandising (NY), and we were excited to participate in our first conference. We were also excited to welcome our new team member, Frances Pileggi, to the team!
Since the dawn of the student loan crises, schools have been paying much more attention to their costs. Payment Planner, Overture Technologies’ web-based self-service financial aid solution, has the ability to help improve student acquisition and lower the cost of delivering financial aid. The idea of turning on a “virtual financial aid office” that could work with any FAMS (Banner, PowerFAIDS, Datatel, PeopleSoft, etc.) was very interesting to the schools. The bottom-line benefits were immediately apparent.
BTW, if you think leaving from the East Coast early in the morning of the conference and returning on the red-eye on the evening after the conference is a good idea, think again! Very bad traveling decision!
Members of our sales and marketing team at CCA.
Posted in Conferences, Payment Planner, Private Student Loans, Student Loan Marketplace | No Comments »
June 23rd, 2008 Jeff S
We are excited to announce that industry veteran Don Cascini has been appointed to the newly created position of Senior Vice President of Higher Education Sales at Overture. Don brings a wealth of experience to Overture, having worked for over 21 years with powerhouses Sallie Mae, USA Group and Wachovia, among others. Most recently, Don was the the president of Erie Processing Corporation, a student consolidation lender.
In his new role, Don will be responsible for developing and implementing strategies that further Overture’s goal of growing market share for Payment Planner, Student Loan Marketplace and Amadeus.
Click here to read the full press release.
Posted in Credit Decisioning, Credit Risk, Payment Planner, Private Student Loans, Student Loan Marketplace | No Comments »
June 12th, 2008 Jeff S
In today’s changing financial aid environment, the cost of delivering aid to students is rising significantly. In this new environment, services such as call center support, printing of financial aid materials, and conducting entrance and exit interviews formerly supplied by lenders are now the obligation of financial aid offices to provide.
Unfortunately, in many cases, the financial realities of taking on these crucial activities place schools under significant financial duress. Unless schools can develop or procure solutions to deliver aid in a more cost-effective manner, these new expenses will ultimately reduce the available financial aid pool and potentially diminish students’ access to higher education.
Thankfully, there is a solution available to help schools deal with the new financial aid landscape, and that is Overture’s Payment Planner. With a focus on thorough and customizable student education, Payment Planner proves to be an invaluable tool for financial aid officers to use in guiding students through the complex process of funding their education. This solution eliminates the need for much of the time- and money-consuming repeat mailing of materials and other follow-up tasks and thus cuts the costs associated with these tasks nearly in half - all while freeing up considerable time for both students and financial aid staff.
To learn about how Payment Planner can make a significant impact for financial aid officers, read our new white paper today! If you would like to find out more or request a demo, you can check out our Payment Planner campaign site.
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May 26th, 2008 Peter C
I returned from the SRI Student Loans in the Capital Markets summit and the mood was only slightly less depressing than the CBA conference earlier this year. It is clear that there is still little action going on in the capital markets for either FFELP or private student loan product. The conference had very few lenders present and I didn’t see any schools on the attendee list. FFELP-collateralized auction rate securities are being traded, but at between 60-80 cents on the dollar.
Last week there was reason to cheer when the Bush Administration announced a plan for the Department of Education to purchase loans as an alternative secondary market. The economics seem to be reasonable, as noted in Sallie Mae’s investor conference call last week where the student loan giant reaffirmed their commitment to stay in the FFELP market. Apparently this decision was an audible they called at the last minute at the line of scrimmage.
But these recent and positive moves by the Administration and Congress will only provide relief to the $80 billion annual FFELP market. There still seems to be no solution to address the funding gaps in the $20 billion private student loan market. Lenders have tightened their guidelines to the point where most lenders will not support a borrower whose co-signer has less than a 650 FICO score in their credit report. Some lenders are noting that they will go as low as 620, but they don’t make it clear what the cost will be to the students who receive these loans. In all, this tightening may result in a $3-4 billion shortfall that will affect all students, but especially those who are from low income families and are attending trade and vocational schools.
We have recently witnessed efforts by some schools to attack this problem through a private lender of last resort program. In this program schools will provide guaranties to loans in the form of loss back-stop or rate buy-down subsidies. In some cases, schools are investing their funds directly as the lender. This is new terrain for these schools that do not have experience managing these types of complex financial transactions.
Many schools would prefer not to be in this business, but have found themselves forced into it due to the current market conditions. However they don’t see this business as a long term value proposition which makes it even more challenging. How is a school with limited resources supposed to make the significant capital expenditures necessary to administer a complex and short term private lending program?
Luckily there are private student lending platforms in place today that can address these needs. Overture’s platform provides schools a turnkey platform that addresses the complete business process from start to finish. It includes a Student Loan Marketplace that allows students to source private loan offers from participating lenders, or if no other products are available, the school-based product. The platform ensures that all products presented to students undergo rigorous credit and pricing policy decisioning so that the loan offer is real and not an “as low as” bait and switch. The platform includes integrations to third party servicers who can verify, certify and disburse the loan as well as service the payments on an ongoing basis.
As an independent, non-bank, third party, Overture is well positioned to facilitate a collective of schools, state agencies, and not-for-profit associations in determining a common credit and pricing policy framework for a private student lender of last resort. These policies apply not just to core product design, but also to loan guaranty premiums. The notion of a common lending platform is not new, it is an approach that credit unions and community banks have used in various lending business for years. It has permitted them to achieve economies of scale and buying power that they could never achieve on their own.
We are all watching the markets for a sign that better times are on the way and there is plenty of reason to remain hopeful. But with the clock ticking, the time might be right for schools to explore ways they can easily and quickly adapt to these constantly shifting market conditions and be ready when the new school year begins.
Posted in Credit Decisioning, Credit Risk, Student Loan Marketplace | No Comments »
April 10th, 2008 Dave K
Monday evening TERI, the largest guarantor of private student loans, declared bankruptcy. The question is why and the answer is important to the future of private student lending. Technically they were forced to declare because they were downgraded below investment grade by Moody’s which triggered covenants in their client agreements that amounted to a capital call they could not meet. What was the reason for the downgrade? Was it caused by a sharp rise in delinquencies that were outside the parameters of the rating agency models? If so, that is very bad news for every private loan provider and private loans will not be a viable asset class for securitization until the current portfolios are tested during an economic downturn( such as the one we are in).
The other possible reason was simply that TERI was terribly under-capitalized and unable to withstand any sort of rise in delinquencies and defaults even one that was within the parameters of agency models. If so, of course one would have to ask why they were rated higher in the first place.
Posted in Credit Risk, Private Student Loans | No Comments »
April 4th, 2008 Dave K
Our Payment Planner site was also listed on CSSRemix, given the company on that list, it is quite an honor. Payment Planner is our financial aid software solution that guides students through the process of funding their education.
Posted in Payment Planner, Uncategorized | No Comments »