SallieMae, Owner of Upromise, Reports Big First Quarter Loss

In a press release today, SallieMae, the owner of the Upromise rewards program, reported a net loss in their first quarter earnings for 2008 of $104 million, compared to a net INCOME of $116 million in their first quarter last year.

SallieMae's CEO, Albert L. Lord, said, "Today’s environment is the most difficult we have seen in our 35-year history of student lending...It has become obvious that we can only meet the enormous student credit demands we are seeing at Sallie Mae if there is a near-term, system-wide liquidity solution.”

Liquidity solution? Upromise's CEO just up and left two weeks ago? Hmmm.