DBRS Finalizes Provisional Ratings on DRB Prime Student Loan Trust 2016-B

DBRS, Inc. (DBRS) has today finalized its provisional ratings of AA (sf) on the Class A Notes issued by DRB Prime Student Loan Trust 2016-B (DRB).

The finalized ratings are based on DBRS’s review of the following analytical considerations:

-- The transaction’s form and sufficiency of available credit enhancement.
-- The quality and credit characteristics of the student loan borrowers.
-- Structural features of the transaction that require the Class A Notes to enter into full turbo principal amortization if certain performance triggers are breached.
-- DRB’s capabilities with regards to originations, underwriting and servicing.
-- The ability of the Initial Servicer and Successor Servicer to perform collections on the collateral pool and other required activities.
-- The benefits offered by the existence of the Backup Initial Servicer.
-- The legal structure and legal opinions that address the true sale of the student loans, the non-consolidation of the trust, and that the trust has a valid first-priority security interest in the assets and the consistency with the DBRS “Legal Criteria for U.S. Structured Finance” methodology.

Transaction Description
-- $21,500,000 Class A-1 Notes at AA (sf).
-- $143,700,000 Class A-2 Notes at AA (sf).
-- $10,800,000 Class A-3 Notes at AA (sf).

The DBRS ratings address the timely payment of interest and the full payment of principal for each class of Notes in accordance with the terms and conditions of the DRB 2016-B transaction documents. The collateral securing DRB 2016-B will consist of private student loans originated by Darien Rowayton Bank (DRB). The $176.0 million DRB 2016-B transaction represents DRB’s sixth securitization of student loans, and the sixth DRB securitization rated by DBRS.

The transaction consists of three pools of loans: (1) the Class A-1 student loans are 100% variable-rate and primarily support the variable-rate Class A-1 Notes, (2) the Class A-2 student loans are 100% fixed-rate with loan terms greater than 60 months and primarily support the fixed-rate Class A-2 Notes and (3) the Class A-3 student loans are 100% fixed-rate with original loan terms equal to or less than 60 months and primarily support the fixed-rate Class A-3 Notes.

Notes:
All figures are in U.S. dollars unless otherwise noted.

The applicable methodology is Rating U.S. Private Student Loan Securitizations, which can be found on our website under Methodologies.

The rated entity or its related entities did participate in the rating process. DBRS had access to the accounts and other relevant internal documents of the rated entity or its related entities.

Please see the attached appendix for additional information regarding sensitivity of assumptions used in the rating process.