Press Release

DBRS Morningstar Assigns Provisional Ratings to Navient Private Education Loan Trust 2020-A

Student Loans
January 15, 2020

DBRS, Inc. (DBRS Morningstar) assigned provisional ratings to the following classes of notes to be issued by Navient Private Education Loan Trust 2020-A (Navient 2020-A):

-- $217,000,000 Floating Rate Class A-1 Notes rated AAA (sf)
-- $200,000,000 Fixed Rate Class A-2A Notes rated AAA (sf)*
-- $132,000,000 Floating Rate Class A-2B Notes rated AAA (sf)*
-- $71,000,000 Fixed Rate Class B Notes rated AA (sf)

*The allocation of the aggregate initial principal balance of the Class A-2 Notes among the Class A-2A Notes and Class A-2B Notes will be determined on or before the date of pricing. The initial principal balance of the Class A-2A Notes will be an amount up to $200,000,000. The initial principal balance of the Class A-2B Notes will be an amount of at least $132,000,000, up to $332,000,000.

The provisional ratings are based on a review by DBRS Morningstar of the following analytical considerations:
-- Transaction capital structure, proposed ratings, and form and sufficiency of available credit enhancement.
-- The ability of the transaction to withstand stressed cash flow assumptions and repay investors in accordance with the terms of the Navient 2020-A transaction documents.
-- The sequential-pay structure.
-- Structural features of the transaction that require the Class A Notes to enter into full turbo principal amortization under certain circumstances.
-- The quality and credit characteristics of the student loans and underlying borrowers.
-- The ability of Navient Solutions, LLC as servicer to perform collections on the collateral pool and other required activities.
-- The legal structure and expected presence of legal opinions that will 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 DBRS Morningstar’s “Legal Criteria for U.S. Structured Finance.”

The trust student loans will consist of seasoned private student loans that were made and underwritten under various loan programs administered by the former Sallie Mae, Inc.

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

The principal methodology is Rating U.S. Private Student Loan Securitizations, which can be found on dbrs.com under Methodologies & Criteria.

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

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

The full report providing additional analytical detail is available by clicking on the link under Related Documents below or by contacting us at [email protected].

For more information on this credit or on this industry, visit www.dbrs.com or contact us at [email protected].

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New York, NY 10005 USA

ALL MORNINGSTAR DBRS RATINGS ARE SUBJECT TO DISCLAIMERS AND CERTAIN LIMITATIONS. PLEASE READ THESE DISCLAIMERS AND LIMITATIONS AND ADDITIONAL INFORMATION REGARDING MORNINGSTAR DBRS RATINGS, INCLUDING DEFINITIONS, POLICIES, RATING SCALES AND METHODOLOGIES.