DBRS Morningstar Assigns Provisional Ratings to Westlake Automobile Receivables Trust 2020-2

DBRS, Inc. (DBRS Morningstar) assigned provisional ratings to the following classes of notes to be issued by Westlake Automobile Receivables Trust 2020-2 (Westlake 2020-2 or the Issuer):

-- $140,000,000 Class A-1 Notes at R-1 (high) (sf)
-- Class A-2-A Notes* at AAA (sf)
-- Class A-2-B Notes* at AAA (sf)
-- $71,740,000 Class B Notes at AA (sf)
-- $89,130,000 Class C Notes at A (sf)
-- $73,900,000 Class D Notes at BBB (sf)
-- $54,330,000 Class E Notes at BB (sf)

• The combination of Classes A-2-A and A-2-B is expected to equal $370.90 million.

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

1. Transaction capital structure, proposed ratings, and form and sufficiency of available credit enhancement.
   -- Credit enhancement is in the form of overcollateralization (OC), subordination, amounts held in the reserve fund, and excess spread. Credit enhancement levels are sufficient to support the DBRS Morningstar-projected cumulative net loss (CNL) assumption under various stress scenarios.
   -- DBRS Morningstar’s projected CNL assumption includes an assessment of how collateral performance could deteriorate because of macroeconomic stresses related to the Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) pandemic.
   -- The transaction assumptions include an increase to the expected loss. This assessment was guided by DBRS Morningstar’s set of macroeconomic scenarios for select economies related to the coronavirus, available in its “Global Macroeconomic Scenarios: June Update” commentary published on June 1, 2020. DBRS Morningstar initially published macroeconomic scenarios on April 16, 2020. The scenarios were updated on June 1, 2020, and are reflected in DBRS Morningstar’s rating analysis.
   --DBRS Morningstar applied transaction stresses in consideration of its moderate scenarios in addition to observed performance during the 2008–09 financial crisis and the possible impact of the stimulus from the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act. In the moderate scenario for the United States outlined in the commentary (the moderate scenario serving as the primary anchor for current ratings), DBRS Morningstar anticipates that containment of the coronavirus will begin during Q2 2020, resulting in a gradual relaxation of stay-at-home measures and nonessential business closures and allowing a gradual economic recovery to begin starting in Q3 2020.

2. The ability of the transaction to withstand stressed cash flow assumptions and repay investors according to the terms under which they have invested. For this transaction, the ratings address the timely payment of interest on a monthly basis and the payment of principal by the legal final maturity date.

3. The consistent operational history of Westlake Services, LLC (Westlake or the Company) and the strength of the overall Company and its management team.
   -- The Westlake senior management team has considerable experience and a successful track record within the auto finance industry.

4. The capabilities of Westlake with regard to originations, underwriting, and servicing.
   -- DBRS Morningstar performed an operational review of Westlake and considers the entity to be an acceptable originator and servicer of subprime automobile loan contracts with an acceptable backup servicer.

5. DBRS Morningstar exclusively used the static pool approach because Westlake has enough data to generate a sufficient amount of static pool projected losses.
   -- DBRS Morningstar was conservative in the loss forecast analysis performed on the static pool data.

6. The Company indicated that it may be subject to various consumer claims and litigation seeking damages and statutory penalties. Some litigation against Westlake could take the form of class action complaints by consumers; however, the Company indicated that there is no material pending or threatened litigation.

7. The legal structure and presence of legal opinions that will address the true sale of the assets to the Issuer, the nonconsolidation of the special-purpose vehicle with Westlake, that the trust has a valid first-priority security interest in the assets, and the consistency with the DBRS Morningstar “Legal Criteria for U.S. Structured Finance.”

DISCONTINUATION OF LIBOR
-- The Westlake 2020-2 transaction documents include provisions based on the recommended contractual fallback language for U.S.-dollar Libor-denominated securitizations published by the Federal Reserve’s Alternative Reference Rates Committee (ARRC) on May 31, 2019.
-- In the event that the Libor-denominated Class A-2-B Notes are issued and Libor is discontinued, the Class A-2-B Notes will be allowed to transition to the ARRC’s recommended alternative reference rate (which is the Secured Overnight Financing Rate (SOFR)).
-- DBRS Morningstar assumes that because the sum of the new benchmark replacement rate and the benchmark replacement adjustment (as further defined in the transaction documents) is intended to be a direct replacement for Libor, the contemplation of SOFR as a benchmark replacement rate is not a material deviation from the framework provided under the “Interest Rate Stresses for U.S. Structured Finance Transactions” and related methodologies.
-- Document provisions will provide for prior notification to DBRS Morningstar of any subsequent change to the benchmark.

The collateral securing the notes consists entirely of a pool of retail automobile contracts secured by predominantly used vehicles that typically have high mileage. The loans are primarily made to obligors who are categorized as subprime, largely because of their credit history and credit scores.

Westlake is an independent full-service automotive financing and servicing company that provides (1) financing to borrowers who do not typically have access to prime credit-lending terms for the purchase of late-model vehicles and (2) refinancing of existing automotive financing.

The ratings on the Class A-1, A-2-A, and A-2-B Notes reflect 42.75% of initial hard credit enhancement provided by subordinated notes in the pool (33.25%), the reserve account (1.50%), and OC (8.00%). The ratings on the Class B, Class C, Class D, and Class E Notes reflect 34.50%, 24.25%, 15.75%, and 9.50% of initial hard credit enhancement, respectively. Additional credit support may be provided from excess spread available in the structure.

ESG CONSIDERATIONS
A description of how DBRS Morningstar considers ESG factors within the DBRS Morningstar analytical framework and its methodologies can be found at https://www.dbrsmorningstar.com/research/357792.

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

The principal methodology is Rating U.S. Retail Auto Loan Securitizations (May 13, 2020), which can be found on dbrsmorningstar.com under Methodologies & Criteria.

For more information regarding rating methodologies and Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19), please see the following DBRS Morningstar press release: https://www.dbrsmorningstar.com/research/357883.

For more information regarding structured finance rating methodologies and Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19), please see the following DBRS Morningstar press release: https://www.dbrsmorningstar.com/research/358308.

For more information regarding the structured finance rating approach and Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19), please see the following DBRS Morningstar press release: https://www.dbrsmorningstar.com/research/359905.

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.dbrsmorningstar.com or contact us at [email protected].

DBRS, Inc.
140 Broadway, 43rd Floor
New York, NY 10005 USA
Tel. +1 212 806 3277