OREANDA-NEWS. February 16, 2015. Fitch Ratings affirms the Scholar Funding Trust 2013-A senior notes at 'AAAsf'. The Rating Outlook remains Stable.

KEY RATING DRIVERS

High Collateral Quality: The trust collateral comprises 100% rehabilitated Federal Family Education Loan Program (FFELP) loans with guaranties provided by eligible guarantors and reinsurance provided by the U.S. Department of Education (ED) for at least 97% of principal and accrued interest. Fitch's current U.S. sovereign rating is 'AAA' with a Stable Outlook.

Sufficient Credit Enhancement: Credit Enhancement (CE) is provided by overcollateralization (OC; the excess of trust's asset balance over bond balance) and excess spread. As of December 2014, parity is 105.99%. Excess cash can be released as long as the trust maintains an OC level of the greater of 5.65% CE (105.99% parity) and \\$1,500,000.

Adequate Liquidity Support: Liquidity support is provided by a Debt Service Reserve Fund sized as the greater of 0.25% of the pool balance and 0.15% of the initial pool balance. The Debt Service Reserve Fund is sized at \\$347,591 as of December 2014.

Acceptable Servicing Capabilities: JP Morgan Chase Bank N.A. is the master servicer and Xerox-ES and Tru Student, Inc. are the sub-servicers of this trust. Fitch believes all servicers to be acceptable servicers of FFELP student loans.

RATING SENSITIVITIES

Since the FFELP student loan ABS relies on the U.S. government to reimburse defaults, 'AAAsf' FFELP ABS ratings will likely move in tandem with the 'AAA' U.S. sovereign rating. Aside from the U.S. sovereign rating, defaults and basis risk account for the majority of the risk embedded in FFELP student loan transactions. Additional defaults and basis shock beyond Fitch's published stresses could result in future downgrades. Likewise, a buildup of CE driven by positive excess spread given favorable basis factor conditions could lead to future upgrades.

Initial Key Rating Drivers and Rating Sensitivities are further described in the presale report titled ' Scholar Funding Trust 2013-A Class A (US ABS)', dated Mar. 11, 2013.

Fitch has affirmed the following rating:

Scholar Funding Trust 2013-A:
--Class A note at 'AAAsf'; Outlook Stable.

A comparison of the transaction's Representations, Warranties & Enforcement Mechanisms (RW&Es) to those of typical RW&Es for that asset class is available by accessing the appendix that accompanies the initial presale report. Please refer to ' Scholar Funding Trust 2013-A Class A -- Appendix', published on Mar. 11, 2013 at www.fitchratings.com.