Morningstar DBRS Assigns Provisional Credit Ratings to Navient Education Loan Trust 2025-A

DBRS, Inc. (Morningstar DBRS) assigned provisional credit ratings to the following classes of notes to be issued by Navient Education Loan Trust 2025-A (NAVEL 2025-A):

-- $405,700,000 Fixed Rate Class A Notes rated (P) AAA (sf)
-- $74,700,000 Fixed Rate Class B Notes rated (P) AA (sf)
-- $28,700,000 Fixed Rate Class C Notes rated (P) A (sf)
-- $27,200,000 Fixed Rate Class D Notes rated (P) BBB (sf)

CREDIT RATING RATIONALE/DESCRIPTION
The provisional credit ratings on the Notes are based on Morningstar DBRS' review of the following considerations:

(1) The transaction's form and sufficiency of available credit enhancement.
-- Overcollateralization, subordination, cash on deposit in the reserve accounts, a capitalized interest account, and excess spread create credit enhancement levels that are commensurate with the proposed credit ratings.
-- Transaction cash flows are sufficient to repay investors under all (P) AAA (sf), (P) AA (sf), (P) A (sf), and (P) BBB (sf) stress scenarios in accordance with the terms of the NAVEL 2025-A transaction documents.

(2) The sequential-pay structure.

(3) Structural features of the transaction require the most senior outstanding class of Notes to enter into full turbo principal amortization under certain circumstances.

(4) The quality and credit characteristics of the student loans and underlying borrowers.

(5) The experience, origination, and underwriting capabilities of Earnest and its bank partners.
-- Morningstar DBRS has performed an operational assessment of Earnest and considers Earnest and its bank partners to acceptable originators of in-school private student loans.

(6) The ability of the servicer and the subservicer to perform collections on the collateral pool and other required activities.

(7) The legal structure and expected legal opinions that will 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 Morningstar DBRS' Legal Criteria for U.S. Structured Finance.

(8) The transaction assumptions consider Morningstar DBRS' baseline macroeconomic scenarios for rated sovereign economies, available in its commentary Baseline Macroeconomic Scenarios for Rated Sovereigns March 2025 Update, published on March 26, 2025. These baseline macroeconomic scenarios replace Morningstar DBRS' moderate and adverse COVID-19 pandemic scenarios, which were first published in April 2020.

Morningstar DBRS' credit rating 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' Interest Distribution Amount and the related Principal Amount.

Morningstar DBRS' credit ratings do not address nonpayment risk associated with contractual payment obligations contemplated in the applicable transaction document(s) that are not financial obligations. The associated contractual payment obligations that are not financial obligations for each of the rated notes are the related interest on any unpaid Noteholders' Interest Distribution Amount and the related Redemption Option Exercise Price.

Morningstar DBRS' long-term credit ratings provide opinions on risk of default. Morningstar DBRS 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 Morningstar DBRS 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, AND 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 Morningstar DBRS considers ESG factors within the Morningstar DBRS analytical framework can be found in the Morningstar DBRS Criteria: Approach to Environmental, Social, and Governance Factors in Credit Ratings (May 16, 2025) https://dbrs.morningstar.com/research/454196.

Notes:
All figures are in US dollars unless otherwise noted.

The principal methodology applicable to the credit ratings is Rating U.S. Private Student Loan Securitizations (November 12, 2024) https://dbrs.morningstar.com/research/442835.

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

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.

Morningstar DBRS 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.

For more information on Morningstar DBRS' policy regarding the solicitation status of credit ratings, please refer to the Credit Ratings Global Policy, which can be found in the Morningstar DBRS Understanding Ratings section of the website: https://dbrs.morningstar.com/understanding-ratings

A provisional credit rating is not a final credit rating with respect to the above-mentioned securities and may change or be different than the final credit rating assigned or may be discontinued. The assignment of the final credit ratings on the above-mentioned securities are subject to receipt by Morningstar DBRS of all data and/or information and final documentation that Morningstar DBRS deems necessary to finalize the credit ratings.

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

DBRS, Inc.
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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://dbrs.morningstar.com/about/methodologies.

Rating U.S. Structured Finance Transactions (March 10, 2025)
https://dbrs.morningstar.com/research/449616

Operational Risk Assessment for U.S. ABS Originators and Servicers (March 26, 2025)
https://dbrs.morningstar.com/research/450709

Legal Criteria for U.S. Structured Finance (December 3, 2024)
https://dbrs.morningstar.com/research/444064

Interest Rate Stresses for U.S. Structured Finance Transactions (March 27, 2025)
https://dbrs.morningstar.com/research/450750

For more information on this credit or on this industry, visit dbrs.morningstar.com or contact us at info-DBRS@morningstar.com.