This article discusses exclusive deals between colleges and student-loan providers and the U.S. Education Department's initial move to solve the conflict. The Higher Education Act, which governs most federal student-aid programs, prohibits colleges from requiring their students to borrow from a specific bank or student-loan company. The law does allow institutions to suggest "preferred lenders." Students almost always have to choose from among those lenders. For that reason, lenders fight vigorously to appear on a college's preferred list and are often willing to cut generous deals to become the dominant loan provider on a campus. Concerned about the deals some lenders have struck with financial-aid administrators to win student-loan business, U.S. Education Department officials may ban colleges from recommending fewer than three lenders to students who must borrow to pay for college. Moreover, Department officials also may rewrite regulations that forbid student-loan providers from offering certain inducements to colleges to secure applicants for federal loans.