SLM Corporation, through its subsidiaries, originates and services private education loans to students and their families to finance the cost of their education in the United States. It provides retail deposit accounts, including high-yield savings accounts, money market accounts, and certificates of deposit; and interest-bearing omnibus accounts. The company was formerly known as New BLC Corporation and changed its name …
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Competitive advantage assessment
Key strengths
Strong Deposit FranchiseDeposit franchise strength is evident (profitability score 0.89).
Strong Net Interest MarginNet interest margin proxy is strong (score 0.86).
Key risks
Capital Adequacy ConcernsCapital adequacy is concerning (score 0.36).
The dashed ring is the peer median. Defense scores are percentile ranks
against peers, so 50 is roughly the typical company in this group.
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SLM Corporation ranks #4 of 48
scored companies in Credit Services by moat score — the top 8%.
The widest moat in the group is Qifu Technology, Inc (QFIN)
at 77/100.
Moat scores for companies ranked near SLM in Credit Services
A deposit franchise is the cheapest and most valuable thing a bank can own.
Lending Advantage
Score 70
· 18% of the moat score
Lending advantage is the ability to originate loans at attractive spreads without buying that volume with looser credit standards.
Capital Strength
Score 58
· 20% of the moat score
Capital is the buffer between loan losses and insolvency, and it is what regulators judge a bank on first.
Cost Discipline
Score 71
· 16% of the moat score
Banking carries high fixed costs in branches, compliance and technology, so what it costs to run the bank relative to what the bank earns is a genuine competitive variable.
Revenue Diversification
Score 74
· 14% of the moat score
A bank earning everything from net interest income is a leveraged bet on the rate cycle.
Risk Management
Score 60
· 10% of the moat score
Risk management is the defense that only reveals itself late.
SLM Corporation (SLM) scores 69 out of 100 on the StatsAlpha Moat Map, which rates its competitive advantage as moderate. It ranks #4 of 48 scored companies in Credit Services, the top 8%. The score is a weighted composite of 6 competitive defenses, each measured against industry peers of 47 companies in Credit Services. Its strongest defense is Deposit Franchise (76/100) and its weakest is Capital Strength (58/100).
How does SLM Corporation compare with other Credit Services companies?
SLM Corporation ranks #4 of 48 scored companies in Credit Services by moat score. The widest moat in Credit Services is Qifu Technology, Inc (QFIN) at 77/100. The companies ranked closest are American Express Company (AXP) at 74 just above it and SLM Corporation - Floating Rate (SLMBP) at 69 just below it.
How is the moat score calculated?
Each company is scored with an industry-specific template — Bank Specialized in this case, chosen because the defenses that matter to a bank are not the ones that matter to a software company. Every defense combines several financial signals, and each signal is measured as a percentile against a peer group of 47 companies in Credit Services. The defenses are then weighted to produce the overall score out of 100.
Why is SLM Corporation scored with the Bank Specialized template?
A bank does not sell a product at a margin. It funds itself, lends at a spread, and books profits that remain an estimate until the loans are actually repaid. That makes the usual margin-and-return questions misleading, so the Bank template scores what really determines a bank's durability: where its funding comes from, what it lends against, how much capital stands behind it, and whether it has been pricing risk honestly.
Which competitive defenses are measured for SLM Corporation?
The Bank Specialized template measures 6 defenses, and SLM scores: Deposit Franchise (76), Lending Advantage (70), Capital Strength (58), Cost Discipline (71), Revenue Diversification (74), Risk Management (60). Each is scored independently as a percentile against peers, so a company can be strong on one and weak on another — the overall score reflects how those defenses are weighted for this industry.
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