Moody's Upgrades 46 Classes of American Express Credit Card Receivable-Backed Securities
Approximately $3.36 Billion of Asset-Backed Securities Upgraded.
New York, February 07, 2007 -- Moody's Investors Service upgraded the ratings on forty-six
classes of credit card receivables-backed securities issued from
the American Express Credit Account Master Trust ("Trust")
and the related secured note trusts. The rationale for the upgrades
includes both the significant, long-term improvement in the
underlying collateral as well as the incorporation of new aspects to Moody's
approach to rating credit card transactions.
Over the last several years, the pace of improvement in the credit
quality of the Trust's collateral has outpaced that of the industry
as measured by Moody's Credit Card Index ("Index").
In particular, since 2001 the payment rate has risen from the mid-teens
to the mid-twenties. During the same period, the charge-off
rate and yield have also improved relative to the Index.
Moody's methodology, which was updated and published in December
2006, now incorporates a deeper analysis of the collateral driven
by both fundamental changes in credit card usage (e.g. the
proliferation of rewards cards, cardholders' convenience use
and pricing elasticity) as well as better issuer-supplied data.
For the American Express trusts, the new aspects of the methodology,
in combination with additional data provided by the company, demonstrated
to Moody's that the overall performance should be better in stress
cases than previously expected.
For more details on Moody's updated credit card rating methodology,
please visit www.moodys.com for the report, "Moody's
Approach to Rating Credit Card Receivables-Backed Securities."
The complete rating action is as follows:
Issuer: American Express Credit Account Master Trust
$40,000,000 Class B Certificates, Series 2001-5,
upgraded to Aa3 from A1
$73,600,000 Class B Certificates, Series 2002-1,
upgraded to Aa3 from A1
$75,200,000 Class B Certificates, Series 2002-2,
upgraded to Aa3 from A1
$73,600,000 Class B Certificates, Series 2002-3,
upgraded to Aa3 from A1
$48,000,000 Class B Certificates, Series 2002-5,
upgraded to Aa3 from A1
$57,600,000 Class B Certificates, Series 2002-6,
upgraded to Aa3 from A1
$73,600,000 Class B Certificates, Series 2003-1,
upgraded to Aa3 from A1
$88,000,000 Class B Certificates, Series 2003-2,
upgraded to Aa3 from A1
$60,000,000 Class B Certificates, Series 2003-3,
upgraded to Aa3 from A1
$60,000,000 Class B Certificates, Series 2004-1,
upgraded to Aa3 from A1
$30,000,000 Class B Certificates, Series 2004-2,
upgraded to Aa3 from A1
$30,000,000 Class B Certificates, Series 2004-3,
upgraded to Aa3 from A1
$82,500,000 Class B Certificates, Series 2004-4,
upgraded to Aa3 from A1
$75,000,000 Class B Certificates, Series 2004-5,
upgraded to Aa3 from A1
$45,000,000 Class B Certificates, Series 2005-1,
upgraded to Aa3 from A1
$45,000,000 Class B Certificates, Series 2005-2,
upgraded to Aa3 from A1
$52,500,000 Class B Certificates, Series 2005-3,
upgraded to Aa3 from A1
$37,500,000 Class B Certificates, Series 2005-4,
upgraded to Aa3 from A1
$82,500,000 Class B Certificates, Series 2005-5,
upgraded to Aa3 from A1
$52,500,000 Class B Certificates, Series 2005-6,
upgraded to Aa3 from A1
$52,500,000 Class B Certificates, Series 2005-7,
upgraded to Aa3 from A1
$37,500,000 Class B Certificates, Series 2005-8,
upgraded to Aa3 from A1
$52,500,000 Class B Certificates, Series 2006-A,
upgraded to Aa3 from A1
$52,500,000 Class B Certificates, Series 2006-B,
upgraded to Aa3 from A1
$75,000,000 Class B Certificates, Series 2006-1,
upgraded to Aa3 from A1
$27,500,000 Class B Certificates, Series 2006-2,
upgraded to Aa3 from A1
$45,000,000 Class B Certificates, Series 2006-3,
upgraded to Aa3 from A1
Other Issuers:
American Express Credit Account Secured Note Trust $72,000,000
Class C Notes 2004-1, upgraded to Baa1 from Baa2
American Express Credit Account Secured Note Trust $36,000,000
Class C Notes 2004-2, upgraded to Baa1 from Baa2
American Express Credit Account Secured Note Trust $48,000,000
Class C Notes 2004-3, upgraded to Baa1 from Baa2
American Express Credit Account Secured Note Trust $99,000,000
Class C Notes 2004-4, upgraded to Baa1 from Baa2
American Express Credit Account Secured Note Trust $90,000,000
Class C Notes 2004-5, upgraded to Baa1 from Baa2
American Express Credit Account Secured Note Trust $700,150,000
Class C Notes 2004-C, upgraded to Baa1 from Baa2
American Express Credit Account Secured Note Trust $54,000,000
Class C Notes 2005-1, upgraded to Baa1 from Baa2
American Express Credit Account Secured Note Trust $54,000,000
Class C Notes 2005-2, upgraded to Baa1 from Baa2
American Express Credit Account Secured Note Trust $63,000,000
Class C Notes 2005-3, upgraded to Baa1 from Baa2
American Express Credit Account Secured Note Trust $45,000,000
Class C Notes 2005-4, upgraded to Baa1 from Baa2
American Express Credit Account Secured Note Trust $99,000,000
Class C Notes 2005-5, upgraded to Baa1 from Baa2
American Express Credit Account Secured Note Trust $63,000,000
Class C Notes 2005-6, upgraded to Baa1 from Baa2
American Express Credit Account Secured Note Trust $63,000,000
Class C Notes 2005-7, upgraded to Baa1 from Baa2
American Express Credit Account Secured Note Trust $45,000,000
Class C Notes 2005-8, upgraded to Baa1 from Baa2
American Express Credit Account Secured Note Trust $63,000,000
Class C Notes 2006-A, upgraded to Baa1 from Baa2
American Express Credit Account Secured Note Trust $63,000,000
Class C Notes 2006-B, upgraded to Baa1 from Baa2
American Express Credit Account Secured Note Trust $90,000,000
Class C Notes 2006-1, upgraded to Baa1 from Baa2
American Express Credit Account Secured Note Trust $35,000,000
Class C Notes 2006-2, upgraded to Baa1 from Baa2
American Express Credit Account Secured Note Trust $54,000,000
Class C Notes 2006-3, upgraded to Baa1 from Baa2
BACKGROUND
American Express Company is a New York-based holding company that
is comprised of a group of operating and financing subsidiaries that operates
in the global payment-services, charge card, credit
card and travel services industries. As of June 30, 2006,
American Express had total managed assets of $137 billion,
common equity of $10 billion and an outstanding market capitalization
of $64.7 billion.
American Express Travel Related Services Company, Inc.,
the servicer of the receivables, is an operating subsidiary of the
American Express Company with headquarters in New York City. Moody's
Investors Service rates American Express Travel Related Services Company,
Inc.'s long term senior unsecured obligations at Aa3 and its short
term obligations at Prime-1.
New York
Jay Eisbruck
Managing Director
Structured Finance Group
Moody's Investors Service
JOURNALISTS: 212-553-0376
SUBSCRIBERS: 212-553-1653
New York
Yun Ge
Associate Analyst
Structured Finance Group
Moody's Investors Service
JOURNALISTS: 212-553-0376
SUBSCRIBERS: 212-553-1653