DBRS Assigns New Rating to Liquidity Agreement Supporting Pool Number 324 Within Thunder Bay Funding

DBRS, Inc. (DBRS) has today assigned ratings to the Amended and Restated Liquidity Asset Purchase Agreement (LAPA), dated as of November 10, 2016, by and among Thunder Bay Funding, LLC, a Delaware limited liability company, as Issuer and Royal Bank of Canada as Purchaser, Liquidity Agent and Agent. The ratings to the LAPA will support Thunder Bay Funding, LLC.

-- Thunder Bay Funding, LLC – Liquidity Agreement Supporting Pool Number 324: AA (sf)

The rating assumes that the LAPA has been invoked, and as such, the Purchaser is the investor of the notes secured by a revolving pool of automobile lease receivables.

DBRS has assigned a rating to a floating-rate asset-backed note collateralized by auto leases. These receivables are generated by a nationally recognized finance company and their subsidiaries (the Company). The ratings address the timely payment of interest and ultimate payment of principal of the notes in accordance with the transaction documents.

Consistent with the DBRS methodology “Rating U.S. Auto Lease Securitizations” and as part of the operational risk review of an originator and servicer, DBRS typically performs an on-site visit or has a call with the originator and servicer. For this transaction, DBRS was asked to provide the rating by a Committed Purchaser, Royal Bank of Canada, not the servicer or any affiliate. This resulted in limited access to the Company; consequently, no on-site review was conducted by DBRS, but DBRS did have a call with the Company. DBRS deems the operational capacity of the Company to be acceptable, with potential risks related to not conducting an on-site review mitigated by a number of factors, including the following:

(1) The Company is rated BBB (low)/R-3 with Strong trends by DBRS.
(2) The Company has sponsored and serviced numerous securitizations of auto leases.
(3) DBRS deems the Company to be an experienced originator and servicer, which is demonstrated by strong performance on its outstanding transactions.
(4) DBRS reviewed credit materials prepared in connection with this transaction.

Notes:
The rated entity or its related entities did not participate in the rating process.

DBRS had access to the accounts and other relevant internal documents of the rated entity or its related entities.

The applicable methodologies are Asset-Backed Commercial Paper Criteria Report: U.S. ABCP Conduits and Rating U.S. Auto Lease Securitizations, which can be found on our website under Methodologies.

For more information on this credit or on this industry, visit www.dbrs.com or contact us at info@dbrs.com.