DBRS Morningstar Assigns Provisional Ratings to GLS Auto Receivables Issuer Trust 2023-4

DBRS, Inc. (DBRS Morningstar) assigned provisional ratings to the classes of notes to be issued by GLS Auto Receivables Issuer Trust 2023-4 (the Issuer) as follows:

-- $58,500,000 Class A-1 Notes at R-1 (high) (sf)
-- $126,000,000 Class A-2 Notes at AAA (sf)
-- $41,500,000 Class A-3 Notes at AAA (sf)
-- $68,990,000 Class B Notes at AA (sf)
-- $63,800,000 Class C Notes at A (sf)
-- $65,030,000 Class D Notes at BBB (low) (sf)
-- $45,250,000 Class E Notes at BB (sf)

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 account, and excess spread. Credit enhancement levels are sufficient to support the DBRS Morningstar-projected cumulative net loss (CNL) assumption under various stress scenarios.

(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 payment of timely interest on a monthly basis and the payment of principal by the legal final maturity date.

(3) The quality and consistency of provided historical static pool data for Global Lending Services LLC (GLS or the Company) originations and the performance of the GLS auto loan portfolio.

(4) The credit quality of the collateral and performance of GLS' auto loan portfolio, as of the Statistical Calculation Date.
-- The pool will include approximately 91.9% used vehicles and 8.1% new vehicles, 84.3% of which are from franchise dealers.
-- The loans in the pool will have a weighted-average FICO of 591 and a weighted-average annual percentage rate of 21.43%.

(5) The DBRS Morningstar CNL assumption is 16.40%, based on the Cut-Off Date pool composition.

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

(7) The consistent operational history of GLS and the overall strength of the Company and its management team.
-- The GLS senior management team has considerable experience within the auto finance industry, with most of the executives having been with the Company for most of its twelve-year history.

(8) DBRS Morningstar used the static pool approach exclusively because GLS 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.

(9) The transaction assumptions consider DBRS Morningstar’s baseline macroeconomic scenarios for rated sovereign economies, available in its commentary “Baseline Macroeconomic Scenarios for Rated Sovereigns: September 2023 Update,” published on September 28, 2023. These baseline macroeconomic scenarios replace DBRS Morningstar’s moderate and adverse Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) pandemic scenarios, which were first published in April 2020.

(10) 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 GLS, 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.”

GLS 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, Class A-2, and Class A-3 Notes reflect 55.30% of initial hard credit enhancement provided by the subordinated notes in the pool (49.15%), the reserve account (1.00%), and OC (5.15%). The ratings on the Class B, C, D, and E Notes reflect 41.35%, 28.45%, 15.30%, and 6.15% of initial hard credit enhancement, respectively. Additional credit support may be provided from excess spread available in the structure.

DBRS Morningstar’s credit ratings on the securities referenced herein address the credit risk associated with the identified financial obligations in accordance with the relevant transaction documents. The associated financial obligations for each of the rated notes are the related Noteholders’ Monthly Interest Distributable Amount and the related Principal Amount.

DBRS Morningstar’s credit rating does not address nonpayment risk associated with contractual payment obligations contemplated in the applicable transaction documents that are not financial obligations. The associated contractual payment obligation that is not a financial obligation for each of the rated notes is the related interest on any unpaid Noteholders' Monthly Interest Distributable Amount.

DBRS Morningstar’s long-term credit ratings provide opinions on risk of default. DBRS Morningstar considers risk of default to be the risk that an issuer will fail to satisfy the financial obligations in accordance with the terms under which a long-term obligation has been issued. The DBRS Morningstar short-term debt rating scale provides an opinion on the risk that an issuer will not meet its short-term financial obligations in a timely manner.

ENVIRONMENTAL, SOCIAL, GOVERNANCE CONSIDERATIONS
There were no Environmental/Social/Governance factor(s) that had a significant or relevant effect on the credit analysis.

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/416784 (July 4, 2023).

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

The principal methodology applicable to the credit rating is Rating U.S. Retail Auto Loan Securitizations (May 9, 2023; https://www.dbrsmorningstar.com/research/413731).

Other methodologies referenced in this transaction are listed at the end of this press release.

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.

The credit rating was initiated at the request of the rated entity.

The rated entity or its related entities did participate in the credit rating process for this credit rating action.

DBRS Morningstar had access to the accounts, management, and other relevant internal documents of the rated entity or its related entities in connection with this credit rating action.

This is a solicited credit rating.

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

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

The credit rating methodologies used in the analysis of this transaction can be found at: https://www.dbrsmorningstar.com/about/methodologies.

Rating U.S. Structured Finance Transactions (October 30, 2023) https://www.dbrsmorningstar.com/research/422592.

Operational Risk Assessment for U.S. ABS Servicers (July 20, 2023) https://www.dbrsmorningstar.com/research/417415.

Operational Risk Assessment for U.S. ABS Originators (July 20, 2023) https://www.dbrsmorningstar.com/research/417416.

Legal Criteria for U.S. Structured Finance (December 7, 2022)
https://www.dbrsmorningstar.com/research/407008.

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