DBRS Morningstar Finalizes Its Provisional Ratings on Navient Private Education Refi Loan Trust 2021-F

DBRS, Inc. (DBRS Morningstar) finalized its provisional ratings on the following classes of notes (the Notes) issued by Navient Private Education Refi Loan Trust 2021-F (Navient 2021-F):

-- $945,700,000 Class A Notes rated AAA (sf)
-- $45,600,000 Class B Notes rated AA (sf)

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

-- The transaction assumptions consider DBRS Morningstar’s baseline macroeconomic scenarios for rated sovereign economies, available in its commentary “Baseline Macroeconomic Scenarios For Rated Sovereigns,” published on September 8, 2021. These baseline macroeconomic scenarios replace DBRS Morningstar’s moderate and adverse Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) pandemic scenarios, which were first published in April 2020. The baseline macroeconomic scenarios reflect the view that, although COVID-19 remains a risk to the outlook, uncertainty around the macroeconomic effects of the pandemic has gradually receded. Current median forecasts considered in the baseline macroeconomic scenarios incorporate some risks associated with further outbreaks, but remain fairly positive on recovery prospects given expectations of continued fiscal and monetary policy support. The policy response to COVID-19 may nonetheless bring other risks to the forefront in the coming months and years.
-- Transaction capital structure, 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 2021-F 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 and Earnest Operations LLC (Earnest) as subservicer to perform collections on the collateral pool and other required activities.
-- The legal structure and presence of legal opinions that address the true sale of the student loans, the nonconsolidation of the trust, 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.”

The collateral backing the Notes consists of fixed-rate and variable-rate student loan refinancings. Earnest, which was acquired by Navient Corporation in November 2017, is an online lending platform primarily focused on offering student loans throughout the United States.

ESG CONSIDERATIONS
A description of how DBRS Morningstar considers ESG factors within the DBRS Morningstar analytical framework can be found in the DBRS Morningstar Criteria: Approach to Environmental, Social, and Governance Risk Factors in Credit Ratings at https://www.dbrsmorningstar.com/research/373262.

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

The principal methodology is Rating U.S. Private Student Loan Securitizations (November 5, 2020), which can be found on dbrsmorningstar.com under Methodologies & Criteria.

The DBRS Morningstar Sovereign group releases baseline macroeconomic scenarios for rated sovereigns. DBRS Morningstar analysis considered impacts consistent with the baseline scenarios as set forth in the following report: https://www.dbrsmorningstar.com/research/384482/baseline-macroeconomic-scenarios-application-to-credit-ratings.

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].

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