Abstract: A marketplace that facilitates the business of education finance by providing a globally accessible exchange that facilitates transactions between educational institutions and lenders, and between loan sellers and loan buyers. Specifically, the present invention provides a system and method for selecting a preferred lender list, and a system and method for selling loan portfolios and forward purchase commitments. The present invention also provides a system and method for conducting an auction over a global computer network (e.g., the Internet), which enables the offer or that posts the auction to choose, after receiving proposals, whether to select bidders that qualify for a second round of bidding and continue with bidding, or award winners and conclude the auction.