2nd UPDATE: Sallie Mae To Create 2,000 US Jobs Over 18 Months

SLM Corp. (SLM) said Monday it plans to create 2,000 jobs by bringing its overseas operations to the U.S.

Commonly known as Sallie Mae, the company said the move would cost it about $35 million. Its shares recently traded at $5.70, up 35 cents or 6.54%.

"This is the right thing to do," Chief Executive Albert Lord said during a conference call.

The announcement comes at a time when the largest U.S. student-loan company has been grappling with an inability to access traditional funding sources because of tight credit markets. It is also dealing with a budget proposal by the Obama administration that would diminish the role of private lenders in federal student loans.

Sallie Mae said it will hire call-center, information-technology and operations-support workers across the company over the next 18 months. The company currently employs over 8,000 people in the U.S. Asked in an interview on CNBC if this move meant that Sallie Mae would no longer outsource jobs, Lord said, "It would be foolhardy for me to tell you that I won't ever do anything again."

Sallie Mae, which makes private and federal student loans, gets nearly one-third of its income from the federal student loans it makes on behalf of the government.

It earns another third of its income from the interest it charges on private student loans. The remaining one-third of Sallie's profit comes from a number of smaller businesses, including fees from college savings plans and collecting defaulted student debt.

Private student loans, which aren't guaranteed by the government, are riskier - and more profitable - than federal loans. But private loan volume has declined because of the freeze in the credit markets where lenders like Sallie would fund these loans.

"I don't see private capital financing student loans any time soon," said Lord during the conference call.

Sallie Mae said last month it was replacing its private loan with a shorter-term one that requires borrowers to make monthly interest payments while they are in school. The new loan, which is already available, will help borrowers reduce the total amount of interest they pay, although the additional requirements could make it even harder for some borrowers to get a loan.

The interest-only requirement is likely to push private loans out of reach for more borrowers. But the new structure could make it easier for Sallie Mae to package the loans to sell to investors, which could, in turn, make more loans available for borrowers.

Sallie Mae had $34 billion in private loans at the end of the fourth quarter and $146 billion in federal student loans. It originated $4.8 billion in student loans in the fourth quarter. Of these, new federal student loans totaled $3.9 billion, a 25% increase from a year earlier.

It's no wonder, then, that the Obama administration's proposal to eliminate the income that Sallie gets on federal student loans has investors worried. One silver lining: The Obama budget proposal requires the participation of private lenders for the servicing of the federal student loans.

The stock has lost about 36% of its value so far this year as of Friday's close.

-By Aparajita Saha-Bubna, Dow Jones Newswires; 617-654-6729; [e-mail]

-By Kerry E. Grace, Dow Jones Newswires; 201-938-5089; [e-mail]