FFELP Industry Initiatives

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• Common Account Maintenance (CAM)
• Common Claim Initiative (CCI)
• CommonLine®
• Electronic Signature
• Meteor

Common Account Maintenance (CAM)

CAM is the student loan industry's electronic standard used to report information about students, borrowers and loans. Created by the National Council of Higher Education Loan Programs (NCHELP), CAM provides lenders, servicers and guarantors with a standardized process for exchanging data. Among other things, CAM specifies the type of content, record format and file structure for sharing data about borrowers and their loans.

The benefits of CAM include:

Elimination of proprietary formats
Standard communication between guarantors, lenders and servicers
Correlating CommonLine® change transactions
Facilitating efficient error resolution

Additional information about CAM can be found on NCHELP's Web site.
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Common Claim Initiative (CCI)

The CCI project was born out of the requirements of the 1992 reauthorization of the Higher Education Act of 1965, which mandated the standardization of forms and procedures for loan delivery, claim filing policies and processes in the FFELP industry. Read the following historical timeline for more information.

1992 - NCHELP’s Program Operations Committee took on the responsibility for CCI which included developing a Common Claim Form (CCF).
1993 - Principles and goals were developed, including streamlined claim review and filing information requirements. In addition, discussions focused on claim filing and review, which resulted in a first draft of the CCF, Edit Table and other documents.
1994 - An industry publication with every comment and response about the project was created.
1995 - A cover letter and the draft forms were submitted to the Department of Education (ED).
1996 - ED issued a response to NCHELP. Conference calls were held and ED voiced it’s desire to support streamlining the process and embracing an approach that would facilitate electronic data exchange and processing. It was agreed upon that the most efficient method of implementing these forms and processes was to utilize the Common Manual.
1998 - The Claim Form was submitted and approved for inclusion in the Common Manual. We began on an electronic format to incorporate all processes including submission, disposition and payment records into CAM's CCI.
2001 - OGSLP established June 30, 2002, as its “G” date (the date a guarantor is ready to exchange CCI electronic records with its trading partners such as lenders and servicers).
2003 - Lenders and servicers began filing claim reimbursement requests with any guarantor in the FFELP industry using the CCF. With the full implementation of paper and electronic CCI formats on June 30, OGSLP worked with its partners to ensure a smooth transition.
2005 - NCHELP received a letter from ED dated Oct. 4, advising that entities using the CCI process aren't in compliance with federal regulations. NCHELP asked for a review of the FFELP CCI process. After the review, ED issued another letter on Dec. 19, superseding the Oct. 4 letter. The new letter allowed lenders to submit claims electronically using the CCI format. Guaranty agencies reviewed the submission information included for completeness and determined if the lender complied with all of the origination, servicing and due diligence requirements for claim approval. ED also required development and implementation of a "Post-Claim Review" plan to ensure the automated CCI process is accurate.
2006 - NCHELP developed the “Post-Claim Review” plan.
2008 - NCHELP received a July 15 letter from ED approving the Post Claim Data Integrity Sampling review process.

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CommonLine^®

The CommonLine Network is a process developed by NCHELP's community of service providers (guaranty agencies, lenders and servicers) and schools to facilitate the electronic processing of FFELP and alternative loans. This process, implemented across the country, enables schools to communicate with multiple service providers in a standardized format, using one software product of the school's choice.

CommonLine offers flexibility by allowing schools and service providers to control their level of participation in electronic file transfers and procedures. For example, the financial aid office of a college may choose to use CommonLine for the loan origination process while the bursar's office maintains its manual disbursement system.
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Electronic Signature

The electronic signature (e-signature) process reduces paperwork, speeds the delivery of funds and simplifies the education loan process for schools, lenders and borrowers.

E-signature is a process people use to show intent to "sign" a legal document, such as a contract or promissory note. The e-signature option allows borrowers to "sign" for their education loans online rather than printing a promissory note signature page, physically signing it and sending it through U.S. mail.

Because e-signatures reduce paper and eliminate mail time for loan applications, all parties in the education loan process benefit. Before authorization for e-signatures, a borrower could apply for a loan online, but still had to submit - and the lender or guarantor had to collect - a piece of paper with the borrower's "ink" signature. The e-signature method permits a completely online application process.

More information about the e-signature service is available on our 'E-sign Process' page.
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Meteor

The concept of Meteor began in spring 2000 when a number of leading financial aid executives recognized a need for a common, timely, student-specific financial aid resource. Meteor is provider of FFELP loan information and eventually will include Direct, Perkins and private loans as well as Pell Grants and state grants.

Meteor is designed to provide:

Access to timely, student-specific financial aid information from multiple sources, with a full list of loans provided for each student borrower researched
A one-stop, common, online customer service resource for schools
Participants the ability to provide Web compatible products