The increase in use of private student loans came about around 2001 once the increase in the cost of education began to exceed the increase in the amount of federal student aid available.
The recent history of student loans has been compared to the history of the mortgage industry.[citation needed] Similar to the way in which mortgages were securitized and sold off by lenders to investors, student loans were also sold off to investors; thereby eliminating the risk of loss for the actual lender.
Another parallel between the student loan industry and the mortgage industry is the fact that subprime lending has run rampant over the past few years. Just as little documentation was needed to take out a subprime mortgage loan, even less was needed to take out a subprime or "non-traditional" student loan.