Student loan book sales
In the late 1990s, the government sold two tranches of the mortgage-style loans to investors. Firstly in 1998 to Greenwich NatWest raising £1bn, and secondly in 1999 to Deutsche Bank and the Nationwide Building Society, also raising £1bn.[7] The SLC's remaining mortgage-style loans, for which payments were mostly in arrears, were sold to a consortium, Erudio Student Loans, in 2013 for £160m.[8]
In 2014, the government indicated that under the Sale of Student Loans Act 2008, it would start selling the SLC's £12bn book of 1998 - 2012 ICR loans to improve the UK public finances.[9]
The first ICR debt sale was completed in December 2017 with English loans which entered repayment between 2002 and 2006 (inclusive). The debt sale was completed with the loans being sold to Income Contingent Student Loans 1 (2002-2006) Plc, a group of silent investors, and raised £1.7bn.
The SLC remained responsible for the day-to-day administration of all duties related to the repayment of these loans, and repayments would be paid on to the Investors.
As was true in the previous debt sales, the same was true for this first ICR debt sale in that the new debt owner(s) are unable to change any aspect of the terms and conditions that applied when a borrower entered into their contract to receive (and repay) their student loans.[10]
A second ICR debt sale was completed in December 2018 raising £1.9bn.[11]
In March 2020 the government announced it would not conduct any further student loan sales. This was due to a change in the way student loans were accounted for by the Office for National Statistics, meaning sales would no longer improve the public finances.[12]
