Guess I am the only sucker still left in FMD
DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
First Marblehead Corp. (FMD) announced plans to cut its annual operating costs by $200 million, with 500 jobs already cut by the ailing student lender as it deals with the turbulent market.
The move, which affected half of the company's work force, come in the wake of last month's bankruptcy filing by Education Resources Institute Inc., First Marblehead's third-party provider of borrower default guarantees for private student loans since 2001 and guarantor of loans held by The National Collegiate Student Loan Trusts.
First Marblehead, which has run into trouble in recent months as the student-lending business also has been affected by the credit crunch, uses those trusts to securitize loans.
First Marblehead and TERI depend on new securitizations for most of their revenue, but First Marblehead hadn't been able to put together a new package of loans since September.
The TERI bankruptcy was followed by Bank of America Corp. (BAC) saying it would stop private student lending. First Marblehead processed and helped securitize those loans.
The moves by TERI and Bank of America, coupled with the woes in the student-lending market, have conspired against First Marblehead and has resulted in its shares tumbling 90% since October. The stock was recently up 14 cents, or 3.6%, at $4.
The credit crunch and recent cuts in federal subsidies have resulted in the student-loan turmoil - some firms will no longer make federal student loans while also tightening their credit standards on private student loans.
"This has been an extraordinarily challenging business environment for our company," said First Marblehead President and Chief Executive Jack Kopnisky. "The market and credit conditions have not improved and TERI's bankruptcy filing has forced our business situation to change quickly."
First Marblehead will release its first-quarter results Thursday.