When attempting to create a SAML Attribute Statement that includes the "less than" or "greater than" as in the following example: 

The actual attribute in the SAML Response will be represented as: &gt.

<saml2:AttributeStatement>
        <saml2:Attribute Name="test_attribute" NameFormat="urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:2.0:attrname-format:unspecified">
            <saml2:AttributeValue
                xmlns:xs="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema"
                xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:type="xs:string">&gt;
            </saml2:AttributeValue>
        </saml2:Attribute>
</saml2:AttributeStatement>

• Application Integration Wizard (AIW)
• Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML) Attribute Statements 
• Using special characters in SAML Attribute Statements 

It is expected that "less than" (<) and "greater than" (>) characters will be replaced with so-called entity references in the SAML Response so as not to break the XML format (if a literal character were used, the XML parser would interpret it as the end/start of the new element). 

Related References

• XML Entity Definitions for Characters (3rd Edition)
• PREDEFINED
• XML Attribute Values Must Always be Quoted
• Define attribute statements