When it comes to servicing student loans, Sallie Mae trails its competitors, which could be bad news forthe estimated 500 credit unions that participate in the formergovernment agency's Smart Option Student Loan referral program.

An analysis by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, basedon Department of Education survey data, used participantsatisfaction data from the department's Direct Loan program tocreate its ranking system.

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Categories measured included loan defaults, both by dollarvolume and number of loans, and overall satisfaction with theprogram. The findings ranked the now private Sallie Mae at thebottom of the list of four providers.

CFPB staff analyzed quarterly performance reports over the pastyear in five areas from non-bank servicers FedLoan Servicing , orthe Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency; Great LakesHigher Education Corp. & Affiliates; Nelnet and Sallie Mae, orthe SLM Corp. The results, based on grading on a curve, appearedlast week in a blog by Rohit Chopra, CFPB's student loanombudsman.

Sallie Mae ranked worst in borrower, school and federalpersonnel satisfaction, and second when it came to managing loandefault by dollar volume and number of loans. Unfortunately,borrowers who don't like their servicers have little to no optionwhen it comes to changing, Chopra wrote.

Loan servicing contracts are awarded to participating serviceswith the best performance scores. Based on grades given for 2012performance, Nelnet likely will be awarded the highest allocationof new servicing volume, while Sallie Mae will receive the lowestnumber, according to Chopra.

The analysis comes on the heels of several federal probes of thestudent loan corporation, including a investigation by Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) over Sallie Mae's failure to assisttroubled borrowers, and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) over failure by both theDepartment of Education and the Department of Treasury toinvestigate incidences of alleged wrongdoing by the loanservicer.

The 40-year-old Sallie Mae is the nation's top student loanservicer, currently serving 25 million customers, according to thecompany's website. During the past academic year, Sallie Mae helped2.1 million past-due customers return their education loan accountsto good standing, preventing $41 billion in federal and privateeducation loan defaults, the company said.