Sallie Mae narrowed its 2026 net charge-off guidance to a range of $365 million to $385 million in response to a shift in recovery strategy. The company decided to halt all debt sales and bring post-default recoveries in-house after observing a small segment of borrowers progressing directly from delinquency to default, often engaging third-party debt resolution providers. This change creates an estimated $25 million in-year headroom to previously expected recoveries, though management views the impact as largely a timing dynamic and expects internal efforts to equal or exceed that recovery level over time. All other guidance metrics were affirmed, and the company reiterated expectations for net interest margin expansion in the second half of the year as excess liquidity is deployed into new loan originations during peak season.
SLM CorpNarrowed net charge-off guidance and affirmed other metrics, with expected NIM expansion from deploying excess liquidity.