NEW YORK

The nation’s largest student loan provider will stop offering perks to college employees as part of a settlement announced Wednesday in a widening probe of the student loan industry.

SLM Corp., commonly known as Sallie Mae, also agreed to pay $2 million into a fund to educate students and parents about the financial aid industry, and it will adopt a code of conduct created by New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, who is heading the probe.

Cuomo says the expanding investigation of the $85 billion student loan industry has found numerous arrangements that benefited schools and lenders at the expense of students. Investigators say lenders have provided all-expense-paid trips to exotic locations for college financial aid officers who then directed students to the lenders.

“Our position is very simple,” Cuomo says. “Loan decisions should be made in the best interest of the students, and not the best interest of the school.”

Sallie Mae CEO Tim Fitzpatrick said in a statement Wednesday, “We are pleased that Attorney General Cuomo has recognized Sallie Mae’s leadership in the student loan industry and our ethical market practices with students and schools.”

Investigators found that many colleges have established “preferred lender” lists and entered into revenue sharing and other financial arrangements with those lenders. Some colleges have “exclusive” preferred lender agreements with the companies.

“There is a spectrum of what we consider to be deceptive and illegal practices, from financial incentives that go back to the schools to financial incentives to financial aid officers, to perks to financial aid officers, to employees of lenders being stationed at schools,” Cuomo says.

The newly established code of conduct prohibits revenue sharing between lenders and schools, mandates disclosure of relationships between colleges and lenders, sets restrictions on how lenders are chosen for school “preferred lender” lists and bans gifts or trips to university employees from lenders.