OREANDA-NEWS. S&P Global Ratings today raised its ratings to 'AAA (sf)' on four senior bonds issued by the State of Ohio's Ohio Centric Student Loan Program's 2001 indenture and removed them from CreditWatch, where they were placed with positive implications on June 2, 2016 (see list).

This trust is a student loan asset-backed securities (ABS) master trust backed by a pool of student loans originated under the U. S. government's Federal Family Education Loan Program (FFELP), as well as private student loans originated under the Ohio Supplemental Student Loan Program (SSLP).

The upgrades reflect our view that the credit enhancement available to the bonds, including overcollateralization (parity), the reserve account, and excess spread are sufficient to support higher ratings. Our analysis also incorporated secondary credit factors, such as credit stability, payment priority, and sector - and issuer-specific analyses.

CURRENT CAPITAL STRUCTUREThis trust is a master trust with series 2001A, 2002A-1, 2002A-2, and 2006A outstanding. All senior bonds are secured equally and ratably under the trust's indenture. These senior bonds receive semiannual distributions of interest payments.

Current Series Class balance Note Maturity name (mil. $)(i) factor Coupon date 2001B 2001A 10.85 30.6% ARS 3/1/20362001B 2002A-1 0.20 0.7% ARS 9/1/20372001B 2002A-2 6.80 27.2% ARS 9/1/20372006A 2006A 6.90 13.8% ARS 9/1/2041(i)Current balance and note factors are as of the July 25, 2016, distribution date. ARS--Auction-rate security.

PAYMENT STRUCTUREAll of the bonds were issued as tax-exempt auction-rate security (ARS) bonds. Since auctions began failing in 2008, the ARS pay bondholders a rate of interest based on the maximum rate definition in the transaction documents. In general, the maximum rate definition is based on a municipal index multiplied by a rating-based percentage.

All of the bonds are subject to various mandatory and optional redemption provisions. Principal payments, to the extent funds are available, are required to be made to the bondholders when the auction rates on the bonds reset, which could be monthly, quarterly, or any longer-term period. The trust can also optionally redeem the bonds with excess revenues on these dates at the issuer's discretion. The trust has been redeeming bonds with principal collections and excess revenue on a quarterly basis in recent years. The sub-administrator, on the issuer's behalf, has indicated that the trust intends to continue to do so. In our cash flow analysis, we used both excess revenue and principal collections to redeem the bonds on an annual basis to further stress the bonds' amortization.

CREDIT ENHANCEMENTAll of the bonds benefit from overcollateralization, a reserve account, and excess spread.

The trust maintains a reserve fund that includes separate reserve accounts for each series. The reserve accounts were fully funded at the time of the series' issuances and are currently at their required levels. The reserve account requirement equals 2% of the outstanding principal amount of the series 2001 bonds, 2% of the outstanding principal amount of the 2002 bonds, and 1% of the outstanding principal amount of the 2006 bonds, subject to a floor of the greater of either 1% of all bonds outstanding in aggregate or $500,000.

Although the bonds also benefit from a financial guarantee insurance policy by Ambac Assurance Corp. (not rated) that guarantees scheduled principal and interest payments, we do not prescribe any credit to it as Ambac Assurance Corp. is no longer rated. The current ratings on the bonds reflect Standard & Poor's underlying ratings (SPURs) on the bonds.

Overcollateralization, as measured by parity, has increased significantly since these series were issued. The parity increase is due to paydowns to the senior bonds using the available excess spread.

REPORTED TOTAL PARITY LEVELSThe reported total parity has increased by 18.8 percentage points to 131.62% in June 2016 from 112.8% in June 2013 (the servicer report period that we used for our last review in November 2013).

COLLATERAL OVERVIEWAs of June 2016, the trust's collateral pool comprised approximately 87% FFELP loans and 13% private student loans. The underlying FFELP collateral benefits from the U. S. federal government's reinsurance of at least 97% of the defaulted loans' principal and accrued interest. The majority of these FFELP loans are FFELP consolidation loans (approximately 76%) that are in repayment status. The underlying private student loan collateral consists of private student loans issued under the State of Ohio SSLP program. The private loans in the pool are seasoned, with approximately 96% of the private loans currently in the pool already in repayment for more than nine years.

The percentage of loans in nonpaying status (deferment, forbearance, and delinquency) continues to decline for the FFELP collateral. The loans in deferment have decreased to approximately 8% from 15% at the time of our last review. Additionally, 30-plus-day delinquencies went down to approximately 8% from 13% in 2013.

Cumulative defaults on the private loans in the pool have increased by approximately 0.8% over the past three years and the pool balance has declined by 18.9% over the same period. Given the loans' seasoning, the slow pace of defaults over the past few years, and the size of the private loan pool outstanding, we believe the private loan pool has passed its peak default curve and expect future defaults will be in line with recent trends.

LOAN STATUS(% of pool) June 2016 FFELP repayment(i) 84.14 FFELP 30+ day delinquencies 7.94 FFELP deferment 7.76 FFELP forbearance 8.08

Private repayment(i) 96.61 Private 30+ day delinquencies 8.55 Private forbearance 3.39 (i)Including delinquencies.

CASH FLOW MODELING ASSUMPTIONSWe ran cash flows at various 'AAA' stress assumptions to test the ability of the bonds to receive timely interest and principal no later than the legal final maturity. The following are some of the major assumptions we modeled:

FFELP loans:Four, six, and seven-year default curves;Recovery rates reflecting the government guaranty provided for on the loan-level collateral file;Forbearance rates of 14.0% for 36 months;Deferment rates of 11.0% for 48 months;For consolidation loans, a flat voluntary prepayment speed of 3% annually and a ramped-up voluntary prepayment speed (ramped voluntary prepayments speed start at 5% and increase annually over six years to 10%, after which the rate is held constant);For non-consolidation loans, a flat voluntary prepayment speed of 3% annually and a voluntary prepayment speed of 35%/30%/25%, after which the rate is held constant at 25%;A servicer claims rejection rate of 3.0%;A delay after a default of a U. S. Department of Education (ED) claim reimbursement of 630 days;A delay on special allowance payments and interest rate subsidy of two months; and15% haircut on payments received from the ED. Private loans:Five-year straight-line default curves and eight-year moderately front-loaded default curves; Recovery rate of 20% received over six years; Forbearance rates of 10.0% for 12 months; andA flat voluntary prepayment speed of 3% annually and a ramped-up voluntary prepayment speed (ramped voluntary prepayments speed start at 5% and increase annually over six years to 10%, after which the rate is held constant).Other assumptions:One-month LIBOR interest rate paths based on those that we publish;Other indices that are stressed using their relationship to one-month LIBOR as a benchmark; Failed auctions for the life of each transaction with auction-rate and coupons based on their maximum rate definitions; andAnnual redemption of the bonds. We ran various scenarios holding the defaults of the FFELP loans constant at 0%, 35%, 50%, and 65% to reflect our 'AAA' default assumptions for the FFELP portion of the trust collateral. The cash flow results indicated that the bonds are able to absorb a default of the remaining balance of the private student loan collateral in the pool (approximately $3 million), with full and timely interest and ultimate principal at the legal maturity dates under each of these scenarios. Given the strength of the cash flow runs and credit enhancement levels to absorb a large amount of remaining defaults, we raised our ratings on each class to 'AAA (sf)'.

S&P Global Ratings will continue to monitor the performance of the student loan receivables backing these trusts, including the use of excess revenues, and its assessment of the credit enhancement available to the bonds.