(a) (1) In addition to any other powers granted or duties imposed upon it, the Authority has the powers and duties set forth in this section.
(2) The Authority shall adopt any rule or regulation necessary to carry out its powers and duties.
(b) The Authority may:
(1) Adopt an official seal;
(2) Maintain an office at the place or places it may designate;
(3) Participate in legal proceedings in the name of the Authority; and
(4) Sue and be sued in its own name, plead and be impleaded.
(c) The Authority, in consultation with the institutions, shall establish criteria for and guidelines encompassing the types of and qualifications for education loan financing programs which shall include those eligibility standards for borrowers that the Authority determines may be necessary or desirable to effectuate the purposes of this chapter and which shall include provisions that each student have a certificate of admission or enrollment at a specific participating institution, that each student or student’s parents satisfy the financial qualifications that the Authority establishes and that each student and each student’s parent submit to the participating institution information that may be required by the Authority.
(d) The Authority shall contract with financial institutions and other qualified loan origination and servicing organizations to provide assistance in prequalifying borrowers for education loans and for servicing and administering education loans and any participating institution’s respective loan series portfolio. Any education loan fee may include a portion to cover the cost of any servicing organization’s assistance prorated on a basis deemed fair by the Authority.
(e) To insure the marketability of its bonds and the adequacy of the security for the payment of the principal of and interest on its bonds, the Authority shall establish criteria governing:
(1) The eligibility of institutions to participate in its program;
(2) The making of Authority loans and education loans;
(3) Provisions for default;
(4) The establishment of default reserve funds;
(5) The purchase of default insurance; and
(6) Provision for the establishment of prudent debt service reserves and for the furnishing by participating institutions of such additional guarantees of or other security for education loans, Authority loans or the Authority’s bonds.
(f) The Authority shall establish limitations on the principal amounts and the terms of education loans, criteria regarding the qualifications and characteristics of borrowers and procedures for allocating Authority loans among participating institutions.
(g) The Authority may:
(1) Issue bonds for any of its corporate purposes and borrow funds as working capital for its operations;
(2) Fix, revise, charge and collect rates, fees and charges for the services furnished or to be furnished by the Authority and contract with any person, including financial institutions, loan originators, servicers, administrators, issuers of letters of credit and insurers;
(3) Employ consultants, attorneys, accountants, financial experts, loan processors, bankers, managers and other employees and agents as may be necessary in its judgment, and fix their compensation;
(4) Establish regulations, criteria or guidelines with respect to Authority loans, education loans and education loan series portfolios;
(5) Receive and accept from any source and in any form, loans, appropriations, contributions, gifts or grants for or in aid of any Authority purpose or education loan financing program and, when required, use the funds, property or labor only for the purposes for which it was provided;
(6) Make Authority loans to institutions and require that the proceeds of the loans be used for making education loans and paying related loan costs and fees;
(7) Charge to and apportion among participating institutions its administrative and operating costs and expenses incurred in the exercise of its powers and duties; and
(8) Do all acts and things necessary or convenient to carry out its corporate purposes and in such manner and upon such procedure as the Authority may in its discretion from time to time determine or prescribe.
(h) Notwithstanding any other provision contained in this chapter, the Authority may commingle and pledge as security for a series or issue of bonds, with the consent of all of the institutions which are participating in the series or issue:
(1) The education loan series portfolios and some or all future education loan series portfolios of the institutions; and
(2) The loan funding deposits of the institutions if education loan series portfolios and other security and moneys set aside in any fund or funds pledged for any series or issue of bonds are held for the sole benefit of the series or issue separate and apart from education loan series portfolios and other security and moneys pledged for any other series or issue of bonds of the Authority.
(i) The Authority shall:
(1) Examine records and financial reports of participating institutions; and
(2) Examine records and financial reports of any contractor organization or financial institution retained by the Authority.
(j) The Authority shall require that:
(1) Authority loans be used solely to make education loans;
(2) Institutions require each borrower under an education loan use the proceeds solely for the cost of attendance; and
(3) Each borrower certify that proceeds shall be used solely for the cost of attendance.