Approximately $330 million of asset-backed securities affected
New York, February 24, 2011 -- Moody's Investors Service upgraded seven classes of subordinated
notes from six Access Group Inc. securitizations backed by private
student loans extended mainly to graduate students. Moody's
has also placed on review for possible downgrade Class B notes from the
2003A transaction. Access Group is the administrator and servicer
of the trusts.
RATINGS RATIONALE
The upgrades result from a correction of Moody's analysis regarding
available credit enhancement. Previous rating actions inadvertently
failed to include credit enhancement from the cash in the collection,
principal and interest accounts. The analysis has been updated
to include this additional enhancement, and today's rating
actions reflect this correction.
Although Moody's expected defaults for each transaction have increased
to 9.5 to 12% from 8.8 to 11%, available
credit enhancement, including overcollateralization, capitalized
interest account, excess spread, cash in other trust accounts
and subordination for senior notes, more than offsets the slightly
negative trends. Loans which are more than thirty days delinquent
as a percent of loans in active repayment, i.e. borrowers
are not in school, grace, deferment and forbearance,
have increased since the second half of 2009 and remained elevated,
ranging from 4 to 6%. Cumulative defaults to date are 10%
or higher for the private portion of the 2001 deal, approximately
8% for the 2002A and 2003A deals, and between 4-6%
for the remaining deals. Most borrowers have exhausted the forbearance
allowable under Access' forbearance policy, which will contribute
to higher future defaults. We are increasing our expected lifetime
default levels to a range of 10 to 14% for all the private student
loan transactions.
Significant structural features include subordinate note interest triggers,
capitalized interest account floors, and the change in cash flow
allocations among the senior classes under the occurrence of certain events.
In particular, senior notes benefit from the subordinate note interest
and principal triggers, which both redirect cash flow allocations
on the subordinate notes to the senior notes.
The principal methodology used in Access Group Inc. Private Student
Loan trusts rating actions was "Moody's Approach to Rating U.S.
Private Student Loan-Backed Securities", published on January
6th, 2010 and is available at www.moodys.com in the
Rating Methodologies sub-directory under the Research & Ratings
tab. In addition, Moody's publishes a weekly summary of structured
finance credit, ratings and methodologies, available to all
registered users of our website, at www.moodys.com/SFQuickCheck.
Our expected lifetime net losses as a percentage of the adjusted original
pool balance plus any loans added and cumulative capitalized interest
subsequently are approximately 9.6%, 8.8%,8.8%,8.8%,
8.8%, 7.6% and 9.6% respectively
for the 2001 Group II , 2002-A, 2003A, 2004A,
2005A, 2005-B and 2007A trusts. The ratings of the
most junior Class A tranches could be upgraded in the future if the lifetime
expected net losses are 10% lower, or downgraded if the lifetime
expected net losses are 10% higher than the levels indicated above.
During the review period, Moody's will continue to refine its assessment
of losses relative to the available credit enhancement.
The performance expectations for a given variable indicate Moody's forward-looking
view of the likely range of performance over the medium term. From
time to time, Moody's may, if warranted, change these
expectations. Performance that falls outside the given range may
indicate that the collateral's credit quality is stronger or weaker than
Moody's had anticipated when the related securities ratings were issued.
Even so, a deviation from the expected range will not necessarily
result in a rating action nor does performance within expectations preclude
such actions. The decision to take (or not take) a rating action
is dependent on an assessment of a range of factors including, but
not exclusively, the performance metrics. Primary sources
of uncertainty with regard to expected losses are the weak economic environment
and the high unemployment rate, which adversely impacts the income-generating
ability of the borrowers. Overall, Moody's central global
scenario remains "Hook-shaped" for 2010 and 2011; we expect
overall a sluggish recovery in most of the world largest economies,
returning to trend growth rate with elevated fiscal deficits and persistent
unemployment levels.
Moody's Investors Service did not receive or take into account a third
party due diligence report on the underlying assets or financial instruments
related to the monitoring of this transaction in the past 6 months.
RATINGS
Issuer: Access Group, Inc., Federal Student Loan
Asset-Backed Notes, Series 2001
Cl. B, Upgraded to A3; previously on Sep 30, 2009
Downgraded to Baa2
Issuer: Access Group, Inc. Series 2002-A
Subordinate 2002-A Cl. B, Upgraded to A2; previously
on Sep 30, 2009 Downgraded to Ba1
Issuer: Access Group, Inc., Series 2003-A
Senior Ser. 2003-A Cl. B, A2 Placed Under Review
for Possible Downgrade; previously on May 9, 2003 Assigned
A2
Issuer: Access Group, Inc., Private Student Loan
Asset-Backed Notes, Series 2004-A
B-1, Upgraded to A3; previously on Sep 30, 2009
Downgraded to Baa1
B-2, Upgraded to A3; previously on Sep 30, 2009
Downgraded to Baa1
Issuer: Access Group, Inc., Private Student Loan
Asset-Backed Floating Rate Notes, Series 2005-A
2005-A-B-1, Upgraded to Ba1; previously
on Jun 30, 2009 Downgraded to B1
Issuer: Access Group Inc. Private Student Loan asset-Backed
Floating Rate Notes, Series 2005-B
2005-B Cl. B-2, Upgraded to A3; previously
on Jan 4, 2010 Assigned Baa3
Issuer: Access Group, Inc. Private Student Loan Asset-Backed
Floating Rate Notes, Series 2007-A
2007-A-B, Upgraded to A3; previously on Jun 30,
2009 Downgraded to Baa1
REGULATORY DISCLOSURES
Information sources used to prepare the credit rating are the following:
parties involved in the ratings and confidential and proprietary Moody's
Investors Service information.
Moody's Investors Service considers the quality of information available
on the issuer or obligation satisfactory for the purposes of maintaining
a credit rating.
Moody's adopts all necessary measures so that the information it uses
in assigning a credit rating is of sufficient quality and from sources
Moody's considers to be reliable including, when appropriate,
independent third-party sources. However, Moody's
is not an auditor and cannot in every instance independently verify or
validate information received in the rating process.
Please see ratings tab on the issuer/entity page on Moodys.com
for the last rating action and the rating history.
The date on which some Credit Ratings were first released goes back to
a time before Moody's Investors Service's Credit Ratings were fully digitized
and accurate data may not be available. Consequently, Moody's
Investors Service provides a date that it believes is the most reliable
and accurate based on the information that is available to it.
Please see the ratings disclosure page on our website www.moodys.com
for further information.
Please see the Credit Policy page on Moodys.com for the methodologies
used in determining ratings, further information on the meaning
of each rating category and the definition of default and recovery.
New York
JingJing Dang
Asst Vice President - Analyst
Structured Finance Group
Moody's Investors Service
JOURNALISTS: 212-553-0376
SUBSCRIBERS: 212-553-1653
New York
John Park
MD - Structured Finance
Structured Finance Group
Moody's Investors Service
JOURNALISTS: 212-553-0376
SUBSCRIBERS: 212-553-1653
Moody's Investors Service
250 Greenwich Street
New York, NY 10007
U.S.A.
JOURNALISTS: 212-553-0376
SUBSCRIBERS: 212-553-1653
Moody's upgrades seven subordinated classes in Access Group's private student loan deals and places under review for possible downgrade one class