£4bn of U.K. student loans will be sold to investors

The first and largest ever sale of student loans will be opened for investors for purchase. This deal was announced on Monday (6th Feb 2017) and it will involve £4bn of loans that were made to about 450,000 students between 2002 and 2006.

This is an effort by the government to divest public assets and reduce national debt. The price of these student loans will be expected to be lower than face value, since not all the debt will be repaid fully. The loans will be sold by securitisation, in which debt is packaged up and sold on as bonds to investors.