CONCORD, N.H. (AP) – New Hampshire securities regulators say they’ll have a major announcement Thursday about their investigation of a company that underwrites student loans in the state.

The company is UBS Securities LLC, which helps the nonprofit New Hampshire Higher Education Loan Corporation raise money to make loans. The nonprofit has scaled back lending because of turmoil in credit markets.

Last week, the lender complained about UBS and asked it for a line of credit.

UBS Securities, which declined to comment before Thursday’s news conference, is the investment banking part of the Swiss banking giant UBS AG. Last week, the parent company announced a big settlement to help investors who bought auction-rate securities.

New Hampshire is part of that settlement, but the state’s Bureau of Securities Regulation has separately been investigating UBS Securities’ dealings with NHHELCO. UBS Securities has long been the lender’s financial adviser and underwriter.

The lender serves about 6,200 students, mainly state residents, but also nonresidents who attend college in New Hampshire.

It funded about $184 million in federal loans and $67 million in private loans during the year that ended in September.

In March, the lender suspended its federal loan consolidation program, which let students reduce their monthly payments, and its private alternative loan program. The latter helped students pay what they still owed after their federal Stafford or Perkins loans and aid from their schools.

Student-loan issuers such as NHHELCO and municipal agencies were major issuers of auction-rate securities, whose rates were reset at frequent auctions. Big banks stopped supporting the auctions as part of a broader credit crisis last winter.

AP-ES-08-13-08 1744EDT

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