BOSTON, MA--(Marketwire - Feb 9, 2012) - The First Marblehead Corporation (NYSE: [ FMD ]) today announced that its subsidiary Tuition Management Systems LLC (TMS) has entered into a marketing agreement with School and Student Services by the National Association of Independent Schools (SSS by NAIS).

The agreement creates a joint marketing relationship for the promotion of TMS payment plans, the prepGATE® Loan Program and SSS By NAIS, a financial aid management service offered to NAIS member and non-member schools. The prepGATE Loan Program is funded by Union Federal Savings Bank, a subsidiary of First Marblehead.

SSS By NAIS will promote TMS to more than 2,100 subscriber schools as its exclusive preferred tuition payment plan provider, and the prepGATE Loan Program as its exclusive preferred K-12 education loan. In turn, TMS will promote SSS By NAIS as its exclusive financial aid management service provider.

"This exclusive partnership helps strengthen our position in the K-12 marketplace," said Daniel Meyers, the Company's Chief Executive Officer and President. "The financial aid management services offered by SSS By NAIS, along with our tuition payment plan and K-12 loan program, are compelling offerings for schools focused on accessibility and affordability."

Michael Flanagan, CEO for NAIS Services Division, stated, "For over 40 years, our mission has been to help our schools stay accessible and affordable for all families, regardless of their financial status. This partnership addresses this affordability challenge by expanding the array of tools we can offer to our schools. We are excited to work with First Marblehead and look forward to coordinating future offerings to better serve our schools and families."

About The First Marblehead Corporation - First Marblehead helps meet the need for education financing by offering national and regional financial institutions and educational institutions the Monogram® platform, an integrated suite of design, implementation and credit risk management services for private label, customizable private education loan programs. For more information, go to [ www.firstmarblehead.com ]. First Marblehead supports responsible lending and is a strong proponent of the smart borrowing principle, which encourages students to access scholarships, grants and federally-guaranteed loans before considering private education loans; please see [ www.SmartBorrowing.org ]. Through its subsidiary, Union Federal Savings Bank, First Marblehead offers private education loans, residential and commercial mortgage loans, and retail savings, money market and time deposit products. For more information, go to [ www.unionfsb.com ]. First Marblehead also offers outsourced tuition planning, billing and payment technology services through its subsidiary Tuition Management Systems LLC. For more information, go to [ www.afford.com ].

About SSS By NAIS - School and Student Services By NAIS (SSS By NAIS) is an offering of the National Association of Independent Schools. SSS By NAIS provides private K-12 schools with financial aid management tools that are used by over 2,100 schools to objectively and efficiently manage their financial aid programs. SSS By NAIS collects aid applications and supporting documentation from over 150,000 families annually: provides schools with web-based software to calculate families' ability to pay; and provides aid professionals with training, publications, and live support to help them manage their aid programs. SSS By NAIS is the only non-profit solution for K-12 aid management and more independent schools use SSS By NAIS to manage their aid programs than all other providers combined. For more information, go to sss.nais.org.

About NAIS - The National Association of Independent Schools provides services to more than 1,700 schools and associations of schools in the United States and abroad, including over 1,400 nonprofit, private K-12 schools in the U.S. that are self-determining in mission and program and are governed by independent boards. For more information, visit [ www.nais.org ].

Statements in this press release regarding the marketing agreement (the "Agreement") between Tuition Management Systems, LLC ("TMS") and the National Association of Independent Schools, including the provision of future services by the parties and the benefits of the parties' agreement, as well as any other statements that are not purely historical, constitute forward-looking statements for purposes of the safe harbor provisions of The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements are based upon our historical performance and on our plans, estimates and expectations as of February 9, 2012. The inclusion of this forward-looking information should not be regarded as a representation by us or any other person that the future results, plans, estimates, intentions or expectations expressed or implied by us will be achieved. You are cautioned that matters subject to forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties, including economic, legislative, regulatory, competitive and other factors, which may cause actual financial or operating results, including revenues or facilitated loan volumes related to the Agreement, or the timing of events, to be materially different than those expressed or implied by forward-looking statements. Important factors that could cause or contribute to such differences include: the successful marketing of offerings pursuant to the Agreement; the time, emphasis and resources the parties devote to their marketing efforts; demand for tuition payment plans and private education financing generally; and the other factors set forth under the caption "Part II - Item 1A. Risk Factors" in First Marblehead's quarterly report on Form 10-Q filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on November 8, 2011. We specifically disclaim any obligation to update any forward-looking statements as a result of developments occurring after the date of this press release, and you should not rely on those statements as representing our views as of any date subsequent to the date of this press release.