First Marblehead Corporation to Provide Private Student Loan Services to Creditron Financial Services

Business Wire, May 10, 2004

Business Editors/Education Writers

BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 10, 2004

First Marblehead Corporation (NYSE: FMD), a leading provider of outsourcing services for private, non-governmental education lending, today announced an agreement to provide private student loan services to the Academic Lending Center, a division of Creditron Financial Services.

The Academic Lending Center's marketing team of more than 150 loan officers will promote the loan program direct to customers under the name "Custom EduCredit." The program will be immediately available for origination.

Larry Lutz, First Marblehead's Executive Vice President for Business Development, commented, "First Marblehead looks forward to serving the Academic Lending Center with a competitive loan program it can use to enhance its education loan offerings. This product moves Academic Lending Center beyond its customary business of loan consolidation and is in direct response to customer requests. This proves that demand for private student loans is strong and growing, and we are pleased to help the Academic Lending Center expand in this way."

Joyce Covatto, President of Creditron, stated, "The partnership with First Marblehead comes at an exciting time for us. We began marketing student loan consolidation in August 2002 and have produced over $500 million in consolidation loans since. In addition to the success of the consolidation business, our customers have voiced a tremendous demand for private education loans - and the Custom EduCredit product will help us fill the void."

The Custom EduCredit product will carry a guaranty from The Education Resources Institute (TERI), and will be serviced by American Educational Services (AES). Charter One Bank will serve as program lender.

About First Marblehead

First Marblehead Corporation provides outsourcing services for private, non-governmental, education lending in the United States. The company helps meet the growing demand for private education loans by providing national and regional financial institutions and educational institutions, as well as businesses and other enterprises, with an integrated suite of design, implementation and securitization services for student loan programs tailored to meet the needs of their respective customers, students, employees and members. In the fiscal year ended June 30, 2003, First Marblehead facilitated more than $1 billion in loan disbursements for students at over 3,000 schools.

About The Academic Lending Center

The Academic Lending Center, a Division of Creditron Financial Services, Inc. is a leader in Federal Student Loan Consolidation. The company's goal is to provide the easiest method for holders of Federal Student Loans to consolidate.

With about two decades of credit finance experience, the associates at the Academic Lending Center are highly qualified professionals who have developed an industry reputation for quality customer care. The goal is to provide even more services to a wide range of consumers through the First Marblehead affiliation.

This is a "Safe Harbor" Statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Any forward-looking statements contained herein, including statements related to our outlook for the industry and for our performance for fiscal year 2004 and beyond, are based upon the Company's historical performance and on current plans, estimates and expectations. The inclusion of this forward-looking information should not be regarded as a representation by us or any other person that the future plans, estimates or expectations contemplated by us will be achieved. These forward-looking statements represent First Marblehead's expectations as of May 10, 2004. Subsequent events may cause our expectations to change, and we disclaim any obligation to update the forward-looking statements in the future. You are cautioned that matters subject to forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties, including economic, regulatory and competitive and other factors that may cause First Marblehead's performance or achievements to be materially different than those expressed or implied by forward-looking statements. Important factors that could cause First Marblehead's actual results to differ from its expectations include the factors set forth under the caption "Factors That May Affect Future Results" in First Marblehead's quarterly report on Form 10-Q filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on February 13, 2004. These risks could cause actual results of the industry or our actual results for fiscal year 2004 and beyond to differ materially from those expressed in any forward-looking statement made by or on behalf of the Company.