Approximately $970 million of asset-backed securities affected.
New York, August 13, 2018 -- Moody's Investors Service ("Moody's") has upgraded the rating of one class
of notes and downgraded the ratings of eight classes of notes issued from
six student loan securitizations sponsored, serviced, and
administered by Navient Solutions, Inc. The underlying collateral
consists of loans originated under the Federal Family Education Loan Program
(FFELP), which 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 2005-10
Cl. A-5, Downgraded to Baa3 (sf); previously
on Nov 1, 2016 Downgraded to Baa1 (sf)
Cl. B, Downgraded to Baa3 (sf); previously on Nov 1,
2016 Downgraded to Baa1 (sf)
Issuer: SLM Student Loan Trust 2006-1
Cl. A-5, Downgraded to Baa3 (sf); previously
on Nov 1, 2016 Downgraded to Baa1 (sf)
Cl. B, Downgraded to Baa3 (sf); previously on Nov 1,
2016 Downgraded to Baa1 (sf)
Issuer: SLM Student Loan Trust 2006-3
Cl. A-5, Downgraded to Baa3 (sf); previously
on Nov 1, 2016 Downgraded to Baa1 (sf)
Cl. B, Downgraded to Baa3 (sf); previously on Nov 1,
2016 Downgraded to Baa1 (sf)
Issuer: SLM Student Loan Trust 2007-2
Cl. A-3, Downgraded to Ba3 (sf); previously on
Nov 1, 2016 Downgraded to Baa3 (sf)
Issuer: SLM Student Loan Trust 2007-3
Cl. A-3, Downgraded to Ba3 (sf); previously on
Nov 1, 2016 Downgraded to Baa3 (sf)
Issuer: SLM Student Loan Trust 2007-6
Cl. A-4, Upgraded to Aaa (sf); previously on
Nov 1, 2016 Downgraded to A1 (sf)
RATINGS RATIONALE
The upgrade for the SLM 2007-6 Class A-4 is primarily a
result of Moody's analysis indicating that the expected losses of the
tranche across Moody's cash flow scenarios are consistent with the expected
loss benchmarks in Moody's idealized loss tables for the rating assigned
in today's action for that transaction. Moody's derives the expected
loss of each tranche by running its standard 28 cash flow scenarios and
using the weights associated with each scenario.
The downgrades for Class A-5 and B in SLM Student Loan Trust 2005-10,
2006-1 and 2006-3 to Baa3 (sf) reflect the fact that the
pool factor for these transactions has decreased to below 10% and
Navient has not exercised its option to purchase the remaining student
loans from the trusts to pay off the outstanding notes. In addition,
there was no successful sale of the underlying student loan pools initiated
by the indenture trustee.
The downgrades for the SLM Student Loan Trust 2007-2 Class A-3
and 2007-3 Class A-3 are primarily due to uncertainty that
the cash flow available to make payments on the notes will be sufficient
to make all required payments to the noteholders by the final maturity
dates. The maturities for these tranches are in January 2019 and
April 2019, respectively.
In its rating actions Moody's considered Navient's willingness and ability
to protect the securities from being in default as of their final maturity
dates. Except for the 10% clean-up calls, the
rating downgrades do reflect additional ways Navient could support the
securities from default as of their final maturity dates. Navient
has amended all of the transactions subject to this rating action to add
the ability to purchase an additional 10% of the initial pool balance.
Navient has also amended all of the transactions subject to this rating
action 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.
PRINCIPAL METHODOLOGY
The principal methodology used in these ratings was "Moody's Approach
to Rating Securities Backed by FFELP Student Loans" published in August
2016. 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 rating 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 low voluntary prepayments, and high deferment,
forbearance and IBR rates, which would threaten full repayment of
the classes by their final maturity dates. Moody's could also downgrade
the rating if the protection from Navient is not materialized within a
reasonable time frame. 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 ratings 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 of the disclosure form.
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 or category/class of debt,
this announcement provides certain regulatory disclosures in relation
to each rating of a subsequently issued bond or note of the same series
or category/class of debt 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.
Regulatory disclosures contained in this press release apply to the credit
rating and, if applicable, the related rating outlook or rating
review.
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.
Andrew Miller
Asst Vice President - 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
Jinwen Chen
Vice President - Senior Analyst
Structured Finance Group
JOURNALISTS: 1 212 553 0376
Client Service: 1 212 553 1653
Releasing Office:
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