Electronic Signature in Student LendingAre college-bound and grad school-bound students thinking about using an electronic signature and online contract execution service? Maybe they should be.

According to American Student Assistance, The College Board, and National Center for Education Statistics:

  • In each year between 2000 – 01 and 2006 – 07, an estimated 60% of bachelor’s degree recipients borrowed to fund their education.
  • Average debt per borrower rose 18%, from $19,300 to $22,700 in 2007 dollars over this time period.
  • Average debt per bachelor’s degree recipient increased from $10,600 to $12,400.
  • In 2007 – 2008, lenders provided about $17 billion in private loans, a 592% increase from a decade earlier.
The number of undergraduate students attending 4-year schools in 2007? 8,986,150. And that’s just those attending 4-year schools. Other educational options include 2-year schools and graduate schools.
With these many loans, how can lenders service all of the loan applications quickly and ensure that students get funds they need to pursue their education?

Great Lakes Educations Loan Services

Let’s look at a concrete example of how one of the largest U.S. providers of student loan services, Great Lakes Educational Loan Services, Inc. increased their loan application processing volume by 300% in a given week and provided better customer service due to DocuSign’s electronic signature and electronic contract execution services.

Great Lakes serves more than 1.8 million borrowers, interacting with over 2,700 schools and 1,400 lenders. During the spring refinancing push, Great Lakes struggled to process a critical mass of incoming loans. Even with staff working around the clock and on weekends, signed applications stacked up while waiting to be verified, scanned, and stored for risk management and disaster recovery purposes. The first few electronic signature and online contract execution solutions they reviewed seemed cumbersome.

“DocuSign stood out,” says Marc Storch, Chief E-Commerce Officer. “It’s simple to use, looks like a real signature, and offers layered authentication, verification, and auditing for FFIEC.”

With DocuSign’s web service API, Great Lakes was able to fully integrate e-signing on their website, used by more than 6,000 visitors a day. Documents are now delivered for electronic signature immediately upon application, signing is verified, and completed documents are retrieved and digitally archived—all without human intervention.

Students readily adapted to the e-sign process. In the first two months after implementing the DocuSign solution, Great Lakes received 72,000 online applications and 80 percent were e-signed.

The streamlined electronic signature and electronic execution process enabled:

  • More time for call staff to handle other questions, boosting customer service levels
  • Decrease in mail costs of 75% for loans processed online

Wish I Had the Option to Electronically Sign My Loan Documents

I’m part of the statistics, one of the many who borrowed to attend law school. While I didn’t have to walk uphill, in the snow, both ways, I did have to wet sign for my student loans. At the time, I was living in Taipei, Taiwan and making arrangements to return stateside for school. You can imagine the stress of shipping documents internationally back and forth, crossing my fingers that they didn’t get lost in the mail, and hoping I’d make all of my deadlines. It was a very stressful time because I didn’t know if my loans were processed in a timely fashion.

In Taipei, I had an internet connection and a browser… all I needed was DocuSign. At the time, DocuSign wasn’t an option for me. Now, DocuSign is an option for Great Lakes customers. Why not make electronic signature and online contract execution an option for your student loan customers? Students, why not minimize the stress associated with borrowing for school and go with borrowers who offer attractive terms, great customer service AND electronic signature?

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