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Table 4. Federal Family Education Loan (FFEL) program annual and cumulative commitments, by loan program: FY66-FY96

• Since its inception in FY66, the FFEL program has provided over $223.8 billion in student loan commitments, over 73 percent of which were committed between FY86 and FY96 ($164.7 billion).

• The FFEL program average loan amount increased between FY86-FY96. The average FFEL program loan amount increased 55.7 percent (from $2,374 to $3,697 in FY86 and FY96, respectively). In FY96, the loan with the greatest average amount was the PLUS program ($5,944). The average loan in the largest program, Stafford Subsidized, increased from $2,359 in FY86 to $3,498 in FY96.

• Annual loan dollar volume for the FFEL program fluctuated between FY86-FY96 with increases ranging from 5.5 percent to 29.1 percent in one fiscal year, and decreases ranging from 1.4 to 9.1 percent.

Stafford Subsidized

• Since FY86, $118.1 billion was committed through the Stafford Subsidized loan program. This dollar amount represents 70.1 percent of total Stafford Subsidized commitments ($168.6 billion) since FY66. The average Stafford Subsidized loan amount increased by 48.3 percent between FY86-FY96 (from $2,359 to $3,498).

• The Stafford Subsidized program (traditionally the largest loan program), consistently committed the majority of FFEL program dollar volume between FY86 and FY96. However, during this period, the percent of total FFEL program loan dollars committed through the Stafford Subsidized program decreased from 93.9 to 58.3 percent. In fact, Stafford Subsidized is the only loan program that experienced a decrease in its share of FFEL program loan volume.

• Even though Stafford Subsidized loans represented a decreasing share of FFEL program loan volume commitments, the annual loan volume for this loan type increased each year between FY86-FY94. However, in FY95-FY96, the annual loan volume commitment for the Stafford Subsidized loan program decreased (15.5 and 7.6 percent, respectively).

Stafford Unsubsidized

• Since its inception in FY93, the Stafford Unsubsidized loan program has committed $19.2 billion. Loan commitments increased 365.0 percent in FY94, the first full year of operation, and 44.4 percent in FY95. However, in FY96, loan commitments decreased by 4.0 percent.

• In FY96, within four years of its inception, the Stafford Unsubsidized loan program captured 33.3 percent of FFEL program total committed loan dollars, second only to the Stafford Subsidized program (58.3 percent).

• Between FY93 and FY96, the average Stafford Unsubsidized loan grew 54.0 percent (from $2,411 to $3,712), to an amount greater than the average FY96 Stafford Subsidized loan ($3,498).

Parent Loans for Undergraduate Students (PLUS)

• The average PLUS loan amount more than doubled between FY86 and FY96, increasing by 125.7 percent (from $2,634 to $5,944, respectively). In FY96, the average PLUS loan amount ($5,944) was larger than the other major loan programs ($3,712 and $3,498 for Stafford Unsubsidized and Stafford Subsidized, respectively) as well as the FFEL program average ($3,697).

• The share of PLUS loan dollar volume as a percentage of total FFEL program loan dollar volume increased each year between FY86 and FY92, peaking at 8.8 percent in FY92. Following a decrease in FY93, the PLUS loan dollar volume as a percentage of total FFEL program loan dollar volume rebounded to 8.4 percent by FY96.

• The majority of PLUS program activity occurred between FY86 and FY96. Of the $12.1 billion committed through the PLUS program since FY81, 94.3 percent ($11.4 billion) was committed between FY86 and FY96. Following increases each year between FY86 and FY93, the PLUS program loan dollar volume peaked in FY94 ($1.7 billion), then dropped 3.1 percent by FY96.

Supplemental Loan for Students (SLS)

• The SLS loan volume commitment increased each year between FY86 and FY89, then fluctuated before peaking in FY93 at $3.1 billion. SLS loan dollar volume decreased considerably (38.9 percent) in FY94, the last year the program was in operation.

• Between FY86 and FY94, $16.0 billion was committed through the SLS program. This figure represents 96.5 percent of the SLS cumulative commitments since the inception of the program in FY81.

• SLS loan volume commitments, as a percentage of total FFEL program dollars, increased each year between FY86 and FY88 (from 3.3 to 17.1 percent). Following fluctuations, including a decrease of over 3 percentage points in FY90, the SLS program again captured 17.1 percent of total FFEL program commitments in FY93. In FY94, the SLS loan program was discontinued.

Table 4. Federal Family Education Loan (FFEL) program annual and cumulative commitments, by loan program: FY66-FY96

Table A-4. Federal Family Education Loan (FFEL) program annual and cumulative commitments, by loan program.

Graph 4a. Federal Family Education Loan (FFEL) program annual commitments, by loan program (Number of loans): FY86-FY96

Graph 4b. Federal Family Education Loan (FFEL) program annual commitments, by loan program (Dollar amount): FY86-FY96

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Table 3

Table 5