Washington — Just three weeks after Sallie Mae executives were threatening to leave the federally subsidized student-loan program altogether, the nation’s largest student lender now says it will serve “every” eligible student who applies.

Sallie Mae, in a written statement, said it would “fund every eligible federal student-loan application received from every student at every school for the upcoming academic year.”

After weeks of complaining by lenders that they could not afford to issue loans under the government-subsidized program, the Education Department announced an industry rescue plan on May 21. Under the plan, in effect for the coming year, the government will offer loan companies both low-interest lines of credit and the ability to sell their loans to the government at a rate exceeding their face value.

Sallie Mae’s chief executive, Albert L. Lord, said at the time of the announcement that the administration’s terms, while “barely OK,” were “sufficient to keep us lending all the way through the 08-09 season.” In more recent days, however, Sallie Mae spokesmen have suggested the company was always committed to the program, in which the federal government both subsidizes the student-loan interest rate and covers nearly the entire cost of the loan if the borrower defaults.

The company has “demonstrated an unwavering commitment to students by funding every federal loan application from every student at every school,” a Sallie Mae spokesman, Conwey Casillas, said last Thursday. The company’s new statement extends that commitment at least for the next academic year, until the Education Department’s financial-rescue plan expires. —Paul Basken