Losses narrowed for Boston student loan packager The First Marblehead Corp. during the first quarter of fiscal 2011. The company reported a loss of $10.6 million, a turnaround from $94.1 million in losses during the first quarter of fiscal 2010.

As a result of the new accounting rules, which were adopted July 1, on a prospective basis, the company has consolidated 14 formerly off-balance sheet securitization trusts and has deconsolidated UFSB Private Loan SPV LLC.

These changes had the net effect of increasing assets by $7.9 billion and liabilities by $8.8 billion on the date of adoption. The statement of operations for the three months ended Sept. 30, 2009 and the balance sheet as of June 30 have not been retrospectively adjusted to reflect these updates and as a result, current period financial information will not be comparable to that of prior periods.

"We continued to make progress in transforming our business model, stabilizing losses and strengthening the balance sheet. The monogram platform, our dynamic, industry-leading private student loan program has gone from development to production, the first quarter loss is down from the year-ago period and on Oct. 1, we received a tax refund of approximately $45 million, significantly strengthening our cash position," said Daniel Meyers, chairman and chief executive officer.