My thoughts on the call; it will be some time before credit conditions improve;
but the company has taken adequate steps to get through the worst. THe demand
for private student loans will INCREASE as HELOC's will be less available and
college is not getting cheaper; plus federal aid not growing fast enough. THe
company will be moving towards a more capital intensive business model as the
company looks at various ways to originate loans through their partners or their
bank and either hold them on the FMD balance sheet or sell through
Securitization or other arrangements. THe demand for the product is high; and
pricing issues in the sale of the loans will be able to be passed onto the
borrower as I believe comeptition is and will DECLINE. FMD has a lot of
practical experience so I believe they can be the go to firm in this market; GS
as an investor and strategic partner is icing on the cake. It is impossible to
predict when Wall Street will respect the company; credit spreads will need to
decline (not antcipated yet by the market), guarentor issues probably need to be
resolved; a secrutization taking place would obviously really help; and probably
underwriting data from the loan process showing the passing through of costs of
higher credit spreads. Expense reduction without loss of loan volumes a big
plus; all these will be examined going forward. Any other stockpickrs with an
opinion???