[1] USA Funds links colleges, universities, proprietary schools, private lenders, students and parents to promote financial access to higher learning.
Established by Richard Cornuelle[2] in Indianapolis in 1960 to help families finance rising college costs, USA Funds has grown to become the nation's largest guarantor of loans made under the Federal Family Education Loan Program (FFELP), the main federal source of financial aid for higher education.
the USA Funds guarantee has covered just under $115.5 billion in financial aid for higher education, for 13.6 million students.
USA Funds guarantees education loans nationwide, and is also the designated guarantor of federal education loans in eight states: Arizona, Hawaii and the Pacific Islands, Indiana, Kansas, Maryland, Mississippi, Nevada and Wyoming.
Post-secondary institutions and their students are free to choose the lenders with which they wish to work while using the USA Funds guarantee.