Case Study: Sallie Mae reduces compliance pressures and automates access certification with SailPoint Technologies

Sallie Mae Reduces Compliance Pressures with Identity Governance

Sallie Mae, the nation’s leading provider of college savings and student loan services, handles billions in education loans and sensitive financial data and must meet multiple regulations (SOX, PCI, FISMA) and audits. The company faced rising compliance costs and time-consuming, error-prone manual identity processes—relying on large spreadsheets and dedicated staff to compile access reviews—which strained IT resources and increased audit risk.

Sallie Mae deployed SailPoint IdentityIQ to automate access certification, introduce role-based access control, and create a single repository for identity and entitlements. Within six months it automated quarterly certifications for 52 applications, eliminated spreadsheets, cut access-certification review time by about 90%, improved oversight of high‑risk users, reduced compliance costs, and enabled self‑service and more efficient audit-ready processes.

Sallie Mae

Jerry Archer

Chief Security Officer