Session 20

What’s New for Direct Loan

Processing in 2004-2005

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 In this session….

 Operations Update
 Processing Changes for 2004-2005
 Customer Service Update
 Processing Issues

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3
 Direct Loan Processing
YTD – as of October 21, 2003

2002-2003 2003-2004
Originations (#) 3.4 million 2.4 million
Originations ($) $12.0 billion $10.5 billion
Actual
5.9 million 1.9 million
Disbursements (#)
Actual
$11.3 billion $4.4 billion
Disbursements ($)
% Substantiated 99.64% 98.01%

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 DLOS Archive and Shutdown

 DLOS award years 99-00, 00-01, 01-02 were

archived at the end of September.

 The DLOS System and DLOS web site have been

retired.

 The Direct Loan program will continue to process

these award years on an exception basis through
the COD web site.

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 Direct Loan Closeout

 Program year closeout for the 2002-2003 award

year is July 31, 2004.
 Balance verification letters and emails were sent
to schools beginning on October 6, 2003.
 Schools should continue to work with COD
School Relations throughout the closeout process
to resolve any balance discrepancies.

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 Promissory Notes
 The eMPN is a success!!

MPNs 2002-2003 2003-2004

Stafford (Paper) 687,465 366,515
Stafford (Electronic) 175,467 366,761
PLUS (Paper) 225,321 136,812
PLUS (Electronic)* N/A 52,906

 The eMPN presently accounts for 45% of the

promissory note processing for the 2003-2004
award year. *The PLUS eMPN was implemented in April 2003
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 Promissory Notes
On-line Setup for eMPN
 School set-up for use of the eMPN is available
online.
 http://lo-online.ed.gov

 Schools can choose to allow the student to sign

an eMPN either before of after the award
origination.

 Schools cannot require a student to complete an

eMPN and must continue to support the paper
option.
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 Promissory Notes
eMPN Issue Resolution
 An eMPN may not complete processing if either
of the following web sites go down:
 eMPN web site
 COD web site

 Schools should check the status of an eMPN and

the eMPN system by accessing:
 Web messages
 Direct Loan processing updates
 COD School Relations

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10
 Establishing a Direct Loan
Award
 Anticipated Disbursement information is required
on initial submission of all Direct Loan awards.
 All anticipated and actual disbursements must be
reported when establishing an award.
 The sum of the anticipated and actual disbursements
must be equal to the Award Amount.

 The COD web site will allow the creation of

multiple disbursements when establishing a
Direct Loan award online.
 New for Full Participants only. 11
 Recalculation of Anticipated
Disbursements
 COD will automatically recalculate the anticipated
disbursements when a change to the Direct Loan Award
Amount is received.
 Recalculation of anticipated disbursements occurs when:
 A school submits a decrease to an Award Amount.
AND
 The new award amount is less than the sum of the anticipated
disbursements.
AND
 No actual disbursements exist on the COD System.
 Recalculation will begin with the highest disbursement
number.
 Applies to both Full and Phase-In Participants.
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 Loan Inactivation

 The COD System will automatically reduce

anticipated disbursements to $0 to allow loan
inactivation if:
 the Award Amount is changed to $0
AND
 the sum of the actual disbursements is $0

 Applies to both Full and Phase-In Participants.

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 Pennies will not be Processed

 The Direct Loan Program will continue to not

process pennies.

 If pennies are submitted in the Award Amount,

COD will truncate the cents to the right of the
decimal.

 COD will accept the award amount and will not

store or edit on the included pennies.

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 Reports
 Schools will be able to define sort options, delivery
options, and format options on the web site for the
following reports:
 30-Day Warning Report
 Duplicate Student Borrower Report
 Funded Disbursement Listing
 Inactive Loan Report
 Pending Disbursement Listing
 SSN/Name/Date of Birth Change Report
 School Account Statement (SAS)
 Specific options will vary based on report.
 More information on specific report options is available in
the Technical Reference Appendices published in
November 2003. 15
 Reports

 The Direct Loan Rebuild file will include

additional Common Record elements in order to
provide necessary information to Full
Participants.
 Common Record elements include:
 <DisbursementReleaseIndicator>
 <PreviousSequenceNumber>
 <CPSTransactionNumber>
 <EndorserAmount>
 <DisbursementDate>

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 Message Class Options

 Full Participants will be able to choose the

message class in which they send and receive
documents to and from the COD System.

 Message class options will include the following:

 Non-program specific and non-award year specific
 Non-program specific and award year specific
 Program specific and non-award year specific
 Program specific and award year specific

 Message class options apply to the 2004-2005

award year only. 17
 Message Class Options

Inbound Outbound
Receipts
to COD from COD
Non-program Specific
and Non-award Year COMRECIN COMRECOP COMRECOP
Specific

Award Year Specific CRAA05IN CRAA05OP CRRC05OP

Program Specific CRDLMYIN CRDLMYOP COMRECOP

Program and Award

CRDL05IN CRDL05OP CRRC05OP
Year Specific

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 Message Class Options
 The outgoing message class for the COD batch response
will correspond to the incoming message class the school
used to send the batch to COD.
 The COD System will not validate the document content
with the incoming message class used for submission.
 Each System Generated document type will be assigned
its own message class for Full Participants.
 The 2004-2005 COD Technical Reference published in
November contains more information.

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 SAIG Transmission Header
 SAIG has increased the variable BAT= field on the SAIG
Transmission Header (N*05/N*95) from 26 to 50 characters.

 Beginning in March 2004, COD will reserve the first 20

characters of this field for school use and populate the last 30
characters with the Batch/Document ID on
response/acknowledgements for all award years.

 If a school uses the last 30 characters for other data on the

incoming record, COD will overwrite this data with the
Document ID or the Batch ID.
 EDConnect users must upgrade to EDConnect version 5.3 or
higher in order for their records not to reject.

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 Campus-Based
 COD will accept and process Full Participant Campus-Based award
and disbursement data for the 03-04 and 04-05 award years and
forward.
 Federal Work Study
 Perkins Loans
 FSEOG
 Full Participants can submit student level Campus-Based data to
COD via the COD web site and the Common Record.
 Campus-Based award and disbursement data will be viewable on
the COD web site.
 COD will not generate reports for Campus-Based data.
 COD will not populate the FISAP using Campus-Based data.

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 Extended Full Participant
Deadline
 COD will accept Phase-In Participant records in
2004-2005.

 All schools must be Full Participants using the

XML Common Record in 2005-2006.

Reminder: If you would like to be a Full Participant for the

2004-2005 award year and were not a Full Participant for
a prior award year, you must register with COD School
Relations prior to submitting records.

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 COD Web Site

 Batch Search Results List

 Batch Search screens will contain Award Type and Doc
Type fields and permit filtering by these fields
 Date Received and Date Response field will be
separated into two individual fields.
• Date Received - will indicate the date the batch was received by
COD
• Date Response - will indicate the date COD sent a response to
the school

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Batch Search Results

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 COD Web Site

 Batch Record Detail

 Batch Record Detail will be split into two portions.
• The upper portion will contain the batch information sent by the
school.
• The lower portion will contain the data sent out by COD in the
batch response and in system generated responses.

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Batch Award Detail

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 COD Web Site

 Search for Promissory Notes by Name, SSN,

MPN ID, or First Name and DOB.
 Promissory Note status added to search results
page.

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 MPN Search Results

SSN Name MPN ID DOB MPN/LINK STATUS

123-456-789 Doe, John Q 123456789M03G12345002 04/15/1972 Accepted/Linked
123-456-789 Doe, John Q 123456789M04G12345003 04/15/1972 Closed/Unlinked
123-456-789 Doe, John Q 123456789M04G12345001 04/15/1972 Inactive/Unlinked
123-456-789 Doe, John Q 123456789M04G12345004 04/15/1972 Accepted/Unlinked
123-456-789 Doe, John Q 123456789M04G12345004 04/15/1972 Pending/Unlinked
123-456-789 Doe, John Q 123456789M04G12345004 04/15/1972 Rejected/Unlinked
123-456-789 Doe, John Q 123456789M04G12345004 04/15/1972 Rejected/Unlinked

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 COD Web Site

 New web page will display student data from

CPS applicant system.
 User will have the ability to search applicant data by
SSN, or SSN and award year.

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Applicant Search

Search

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Applicant Detail

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Applicant Detail

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 COD Web Site

 School Summary Financial Information Screen

on the COD web site will reflect information
provided in the Direct Loan School Account
Statement.
 The following fields will be removed from the
screen:
 Disbursement Amount
 Disbursement Adjustment Amount
 Disbursement Amount for Disbursements with Missing
P-Note Status
 Number of Disbursements with Missing P-Note Status
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 COD Web Site

 The following fields will be added to the screen:

 Net Drawdowns / Payments
 Booked Disbursements
 Booked Adjustments
 Total Net Booked Disbursements
 Unbooked Disbursements
 Unbooked Adjustments
 Total Net Unbooked Disbursements
 Cash > Accepted and Posted Disbursements

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School Summary Financial Information

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 COD Timeline

 2004 – 2005 Development Schedule:

 Requirements Complete June 2003

 Design Complete August 2003
 Development Complete November 2003
 Testing Complete February 2004
 School/Vendor Testing Phase 1 January 2004
 School/Vendor Testing Phase 2 March 2004
 System Start Up March 2004

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37
 COD Customer Service Statistics
As of October 21, 2003

 Since the COD School Relations Center opened in

April 2002….

Inbound Calls to COD School Relations 150,211

Inbound Calls to Applicant Services
63,288
(Since March 2003)

Outreach Calls to Schools 14,888

Inbound Emails 57,741

Number of COD Web Site Users 4,588

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 COD Customer Service
 Beginning in July 2003, call
volume exceeded the COD School
30,000 Relations Center’s projections
25,000  This resulted in increased hold
times and a higher call abandon
20,000
rate
Month Totals

15,000
 Increased call volume represented
10,000 a 94% increase of total calls in the
5,000
COD School Relations Center
from last year to this year
0
Mar-03 Apr-03 May-03 Jun-03 Jul-03 Aug-03 Sep-03

Mar-03 Apr-03 May-03 Jun-03 Jul-03 Aug-03 Sep-03

App Services Calls

4,599 4,012 4,815 6,647 12,112 11,941 12,019
School Relations Calls
8,643 9,467 9,432 9,332 10,893 11,927 12,330
Total Calls 13,242 13,479 14,247 15,979 23,005 23,868 24,349
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 COD Customer Service

 Many Applicant Services calls are being misdirected

to the COD School Relations Center.
 Applicant Services provides information concerning:
 Credit Status
 Denied Credit Decision Appeals
 PLUS Endorser Obligations/Responsibilities
 Over 50% of calls to Applicant Services were for other
reasons (ex: Questions about loan status, loan terms,
expected disbursement date).

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 COD Customer Service

 How has COD School Relations adjusted to the

increased call volume?:
 Assistance from FSA staff with answering Applicant Services calls from
August 25th through September 19th.
 Pulled in 10 additional resources (Team Leads, Support Specialists) to
answer COD School Relations calls.
 Overtime worked by CSRs.
 Hired 16 new CSRs.
 Released Direct Loan Bulletin 03-36 and IFAP announcement providing
guidance on when schools should direct students to call Applicant
Services.
 New Applicant Services IVR.
 Applicant Services calls from the PLUS Borrowers and eMPN web site
IVR options are answered before calls from other inquiries option.

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 How do I contact the COD
School Relations Center?
 Email [email protected]

 Call the COD School Relations Center

 1-800-4-PGRANT for Pell Grants
 1-800-848-0978 for Direct Loans

 COD Web Site (www.cod.ed.gov)

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 Where Can I Get More
Information?
 IFAP Web Site (www.IFAP.ed.gov)
 Common Origination and Disbursement page
 Electronic Announcements, FAQs, COD Technical
Reference

 COD Web Site (www.cod.ed.gov)

 Daily COD Processing Updates
 School Funding and Processing Information

 Contact COD School Relations

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44
 Current COD Issues
Stuck Batches and Missing Acknowledgements
 Description:
 Batches not being processed/responded to within 48 hours of submission.
 Stuck batches and missing acknowledgements impact schools’ ability to disburse
funds to students.
 Stuck batches are caused when the processing of the batch is halted in COD by a
code or data issue that the system cannot handle.
 Missing acknowledgements are typically caused in transmission from COD to the
school.

 Status:
 COD operations continuously monitors the COD system for stuck batches. A
dedicated team has been established to work these issues until they have been
resolved.
 COD School Relations emails the school with the Batch ID when a batch has not
been processed/responded to within 48 hours.
 During peak processing, COD processes an average of 9,000 records a week with
200 stuck/missing acknowledgement batches. During normal processing, COD
processes an average of 6,500 records a week with 40-60 stuck/missing
acknowledgements batches.
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 Current COD Issues
Edit 58 – Duplicate Records Edit Incorrectly Being Hit
 Description:
 COD has experienced a high volume of edit 58 rejects.
 In some instances, COD incorrectly sends this edit on a record within a stuck batch
that has just recently been unstuck/processed by COD, despite the fact that the
school only submitted the record once.
 Edit 58 is also returned when a school resubmits a record which was previously
submitted in a stuck or missing batch.
 Additionally, EDExpress Software was resubmitting records rejected with edit 58.

 Status:
 COD is incorrectly identifying the records as a duplicate in the process of releasing a
stuck batch. Software development for this issue is underway.
 Schools resubmit records previously submitted in a stuck or missing batch.
 EDExpress is releasing a patch in November that will treat a record rejected with
edit 58 instead of a rejected record.
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 Current COD Issues

School Account Statement (SAS)

 Description:
 Disbursements are booked in COD and Servicing but are appearing as
unbooked on the SAS report.
 Beginning Cash Balance does not always equal Ending Cash Balance
from previous month.

 Status:
 System enhancements are currently being tested for SAS booked date.
 Discrepancy between Ending Cash Balance and Beginning Cash
Balance may still occur due to ongoing data clean ups.
 COD is reviewing options to include past dated transactions in the
current month’s SAS.
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 Current COD Issues

Direct Loan Rebuild File

 Description:
 While the Direct Loan Rebuild file is now available, some schools are
experiencing difficulty importing the file from SAIG.

 Status:
 The Direct Loan Rebuild file is now being created correctly and can be
requested via the web.
 COD and SAIG are currently investigating the reason why some schools
are unable to import the file.

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 Current COD Issues

MPN Expiration Date

 Description:
 MPNs with expirations dates of 10 years appear on the COD web site
with a 1 year expiration date.

 Status:
 All MPNs have been cleaned up (149,000+) in the COD System. COD
is currently researching 8 MPNs to validate the appropriate expiration
date.
 COD is verifying that all of the updated MPN expiration dates have been
passed on to Servicing and NSLDS.

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 Resolved COD Issues

Inactive MPN Responses

 Description:
 MPN Status of ‘Inactive’ is incorrectly returned on PLUS
acknowledgements that require an endorser. A valid promissory note is
linked to the award; however, the promissory note status is not updated to
‘Accepted’.

 Status:
 Corrected software in October and sent updated acknowledgements to
schools.

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 Resolved COD Issues

Blank MPN Responses

 Description:
 Blank MPN Status being returned to schools when a Common Record
change record is submitted.

 Status:
 When a Full Participant school submits a change record to an existing
award, MPN status = blank is incorrectly returned on the response.
This prevented some schools from being able to process
disbursements.
 Software updated at the beginning of September.
 Unsolicited p-note acknowledgements with correct status have been
sent to the affected schools.

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 Resolved COD Issues
Edit 12 – Name/DOB/SSN Verification Edit

 Description:
 COD incorrectly sent edit 12 when a school submitted an origination
for a student that has existing award on COD, where the student
identifier information on the origination differed from that on the
existing award. COD incorrectly recognized the new origination as an
identifier change and used the existing award identifier information
when attempting to match CPS. COD rejected the identifier change
for no CPS match.

 Status:
 Software updated in September.
 Schools are now able to resubmit records.
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 Resolved COD Issues
02/03 Funding and Payment Issues
 Description:
 COD software issues for the 02/03 Award Year caused funding and
payment levels to be incorrect.

 Status:
 Software has been corrected.
 Financial data for the 02/03 Award Year has been corrected for Direct
Loan schools.

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 Other COD Sessions

 Session 17: COD 101 - The Big Picture

 Session 18: COD Open Forum

 Session 19: Navigating the COD Web Site

 Session 21: COD - What’s New for Pell Processing in

2004-2005

COD School Relations Staff is available in the PC Lab!!

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