Approximately $866 million of asset-backed securities affected
New York, August 20, 2021 -- Moody's Investors Service ("Moody's") has downgraded
six tranches issued by four FFELP student loan securitizations sponsored
and administered by Navient Solutions, LLC. The securitizations
are backed by student loans originated under the Federal Family Education
Loan Program (FFELP) that are guaranteed by the US government for a minimum
of 97% of defaulted principal and accrued interest.
The complete rating actions are as follows:
Issuer: SLM Student Loan Trust 2007-7
Cl. A-4, Downgraded to B1 (sf); previously on
May 12, 2021 Downgraded to Ba3 (sf)
Cl. B, Downgraded to Aa2 (sf); previously on Nov 1,
2016 Upgraded to Aa1 (sf)
Issuer: SLM Student Loan Trust 2008-1
Cl. A-4, Downgraded to B1 (sf); previously on
Jun 3, 2020 Downgraded to Ba3 (sf)
Issuer: SLM Student Loan Trust 2008-3
Cl. A-3, Downgraded to B1 (sf); previously on
May 12, 2021 Downgraded to Ba3 (sf)
Cl. B, Downgraded to Aa2 (sf); previously on Nov 1,
2016 Upgraded to Aaa (sf)
Issuer: SLM Student Loan Trust 2008-4
Cl. A-4, Downgraded to B1 (sf); previously on
May 12, 2021 Downgraded to Ba3 (sf)
RATINGS RATIONALE
Today's downgrade actions are primarily due to the increased likelihood
of occurrence of an event of default (EOD) on the transactions due to
the inability of the Class A notes to pay off in full on their legal final
maturity dates. The maturities for these tranches are between October
2021 and July 2022.
In today's action, Moody's considered Navient's willingness and
ability to support and prevent the Class A notes from defaulting at their
legal final maturity dates. Because the pool factors of these transactions
are expected to be above 10% at the tranches' legal final maturity
dates (when Navient can exercise the optional redemption), other
than borrowing from a revolving credit facility, Navient has limited
options to support the full repayment of the Class A notes prior to their
maturities. Navient had previously amended the transactions to
establish a revolving credit facility that enables the trust to borrow
money from Navient Corporation on a subordinated basis in order to pay
off the notes.
The downgrade actions on Class B notes further consider the interest suspension
on Class B notes upon default of the Class A notes for the periods that
the Class A notes remaining outstanding after their final maturities.
However, although transaction structures stipulate that Class B
interest is diverted to pay Class A principal upon occurence of event
of default, our analysis indicates that the cash flow available
to make payments on the Class B notes will be sufficient to make all required
payments, including accrued interest, to Class B noteholders
by their final maturity dates, which occur much later than the final
maturity dates of the Class A notes. Therefore, Moody's ratings
on the Class A notes of the affected transactions are lower than the ratings
on the subordinated Class B notes. The Class B maturities of the
affected transactions range between October 2070 to April 2083.
Today's actions also reflect the updated performance of the transactions
and updated expected loss on the tranches across Moody's cash flow scenarios.
Moody's quantitative analysis derives the expected loss for a tranche
using 28 cash flow scenarios with weights accorded to each scenario.
PRINCIPAL METHODOLOGY
The principal methodology used in these ratings was "Moody's Approach
to Rating Securities Backed by FFELP Student Loans" published in April
2021 and available at https://www.moodys.com/researchdocumentcontentpage.aspx?docid=PBS_1271436.
Alternatively, please see the Rating Methodologies page on www.moodys.com
for a copy of this methodology.
Factors that would lead to an upgrade or downgrade of the ratings:
Up
Moody's could upgrade the ratings if the paydown speed of the loan pool
increases as a result of declining borrower usage of deferment,
forbearance and IBR, increasing voluntary prepayment rates,
or prepayments with proceeds from sponsor repurchases of student loan
collateral. Moody's could also upgrade the ratings owing to a build-up
in credit enhancement.
Down
Moody's could downgrade the ratings if the paydown speed of the loan pool
declines as a result of lower than expected voluntary prepayments,
and higher than expected deferment, forbearance and IBR rates,
which would threaten full repayment of the class by its final maturity
date. In addition, because the US Department of Education
guarantees at least 97% of principal and accrued interest on defaulted
loans, Moody's could downgrade the rating of the notes if it were
to downgrade the rating on the United States government.
REGULATORY DISCLOSURES
For further specification of Moody's key rating assumptions and
sensitivity analysis, see the sections Methodology Assumptions and
Sensitivity to Assumptions in the disclosure form. Moody's
Rating Symbols and Definitions can be found at: https://www.moodys.com/researchdocumentcontentpage.aspx?docid=PBC_79004.
In rating this transaction, Moody's used a cash flow model
to model cash flow stress scenarios to determine the extent to which investors
would receive timely payments of interest and principal in the stress
scenarios, given the transaction structure and collateral composition.
Moody's quantitative analysis entails an evaluation of scenarios
that stress factors contributing to sensitivity of ratings and take into
account the likelihood of severe collateral losses or impaired cash flows.
Moody's weights the impact on the rated instruments based on its
assumptions of the likelihood of the events in such scenarios occurring.
For ratings issued on a program, series, category/class of
debt or security this announcement provides certain regulatory disclosures
in relation to each rating of a subsequently issued bond or note of the
same series, category/class of debt, security or pursuant
to a program for which the ratings are derived exclusively from existing
ratings in accordance with Moody's rating practices. For ratings
issued on a support provider, this announcement provides certain
regulatory disclosures in relation to the credit rating action on the
support provider and in relation to each particular credit rating action
for securities that derive their credit ratings from the support provider's
credit rating. For provisional ratings, this announcement
provides certain regulatory disclosures in relation to the provisional
rating assigned, and in relation to a definitive rating that may
be assigned subsequent to the final issuance of the debt, in each
case where the transaction structure and terms have not changed prior
to the assignment of the definitive rating in a manner that would have
affected the rating. For further information please see the ratings
tab on the issuer/entity page for the respective issuer on www.moodys.com.
For any affected securities or rated entities receiving direct credit
support from the primary entity(ies) of this credit rating action,
and whose ratings may change as a result of this credit rating action,
the associated regulatory disclosures will be those of the guarantor entity.
Exceptions to this approach exist for the following disclosures,
if applicable to jurisdiction: Ancillary Services, Disclosure
to rated entity, Disclosure from rated entity.
The ratings have been disclosed to the rated entity or its designated
agent(s) and issued with no amendment resulting from that disclosure.
These ratings are solicited. Please refer to Moody's Policy
for Designating and Assigning Unsolicited Credit Ratings available on
its website www.moodys.com.
Regulatory disclosures contained in this press release apply to the credit
rating and, if applicable, the related rating outlook or rating
review.
Moody's general principles for assessing environmental, social
and governance (ESG) risks in our credit analysis can be found at http://www.moodys.com/researchdocumentcontentpage.aspx?docid=PBC_1288435.
The Global Scale Credit Rating on this Credit Rating Announcement was
issued by one of Moody's affiliates outside the EU and is endorsed
by Moody's Deutschland GmbH, An der Welle 5, Frankfurt
am Main 60322, Germany, in accordance with Art.4 paragraph
3 of the Regulation (EC) No 1060/2009 on Credit Rating Agencies.
Further information on the EU endorsement status and on the Moody's
office that issued the credit rating is available on www.moodys.com.
The Global Scale Credit Rating on this Credit Rating Announcement was
issued by one of Moody's affiliates outside the UK and is endorsed
by Moody's Investors Service Limited, One Canada Square,
Canary Wharf, London E14 5FA under the law applicable to credit
rating agencies in the UK. Further information on the UK endorsement
status and on the Moody's office that issued the credit rating is
available on www.moodys.com.
Please see www.moodys.com for any updates on changes to
the lead rating analyst and to the Moody's legal entity that has issued
the rating.
Please see the ratings tab on the issuer/entity page on www.moodys.com
for additional regulatory disclosures for each credit rating.
Natallia Birukova
Associate Lead Analyst
Structured Finance Group
Moody's Investors Service, Inc.
250 Greenwich Street
New York, NY 10007
U.S.A.
JOURNALISTS: 1 212 553 0376
Client Service: 1 212 553 1653
Deepika Kothari
Senior Vice President/Manager
Structured Finance Group
JOURNALISTS: 1 212 553 0376
Client Service: 1 212 553 1653
Releasing Office:
Moody's Investors Service, Inc.
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JOURNALISTS: 1 212 553 0376
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