DBRS Confirms Rating on Liquidity Asset Purchase Agreement Supporting Pool Number 320 within Thunder Bay Funding, LLC

DBRS, Inc. (DBRS) confirmed the rating of the Liquidity Asset Purchase Agreement (LAPA), dated as at February 12, 2016, by and among Thunder Bay Funding, LLC, a Delaware limited liability company, as Issuer, and the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC; rated AA/R-1 (high) with Stable trends by DBRS) as Purchaser and Liquidity Agent as follows:

-- Thunder Bay Funding, LLC – Liquidity Agreement Supporting Pool Number 320 at AAA (sf)

The rating on the LAPA will support Thunder Bay Funding, LLC.

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. These receivables are generated by a nationally recognized finance company and their subsidiaries (the Company).

The rating addresses the timely payment of interest and the ultimate payment of principal.

Consistent with both of DBRS’s “Rating U.S. Auto Lease Securitizations” and “Rating U.S. Retail Auto Loan Securitizations” methodologies 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, RBC, not the servicer or any affiliate. This resulted in no access to the Company; consequently, no on-site review was conducted by DBRS. 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’s parent is rated BBB (high) with a Negative trend by DBRS.

(2) The Company has sponsored and serviced numerous securitizations of auto loans and leases supported by its own originated collateral. DBRS deems the Company to be an experienced originator and servicer, which is demonstrated by the strong performance on its outstanding transactions.

The Retail Loan and Lease Facilities include derivative counterparties. Some of these counterparties may have initial ratings below the level of A (high) set forth in the DBRS “Legal Criteria for U.S. Structured Finance” methodology. However, the facility contains downgrade and collateralization provisions relating to such hedge counterparties and DBRS believes the associated risk is consistent with the assigned ratings on the individual facilities.

Notes:
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 in connection with this rating action.

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

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