OREANDA-NEWS. Fitch Ratings has assigned ratings to Navient Private Education Loan Trust 2016-A as follows:

--$130,000,000 class A-1 notes 'AAAsf'; Outlook Stable;
--$150,000,000 class A-2A notes 'AAAsf'; Outlook Stable;
--$150,000,000 class A-2B notes 'AAAsf'; Outlook Stable;
--$58,000,000 class B notes 'AAsf'; Outlook Stable.

KEY RATING DRIVERS

Strong Collateral Quality: The 2016-A trust pool consists of credit-tested private student loans originated under Navient's private student loan programs and underwritten to the respective guidelines. As of the Nov. 8, 2015 statistical cutoff date, the weighted average Fair Isaac Corp. (FICO) score at origination was 720; 80% of the loans in the pool were made to four-year schools; 69% of the loans in the pool were co-signed; and none of the loans were more than 60 days past due or involved in a bankruptcy proceeding.

Sufficient Credit Enhancement: Transaction cash flows were satisfactory under all stressed scenarios at Fitch's 'AAAsf' and 'AAsf' rating categories. Credit enhancement (CE) is provided by overcollateralization (OC) and excess spread, and, for class A notes, the subordination of class B notes. The initial CE for the senior and subordinate notes is expected to be 41.6% and 33.7%, respectively. Funds cannot be released from the trust unless the OC (excluding the reserve fund) builds up to 36.5% of the outstanding pool balance or 10% of the initial pool balance, whichever is higher.

Adequate Liquidity Support: Liquidity support is provided by a reserve account, which will be fully funded at closing and maintained at 0.25% of the initial pool balance. As of the statistical cutoff date, approximately 84.4% of the loans were required to make repayments.

Satisfactory Servicing Capabilities: Navient Solutions, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Navient, will service all the loans in the 2016-A trust. Fitch has reviewed the servicing operations of Navient Solutions, Inc. and considers it to be an effective private student loan servicer.

RATING SENSITIVITIES

As Fitch's base case default proxy is derived primarily from historical collateral performance, actual performance may differ from the expected performance, resulting in higher loss levels and/or prepayment speeds than the base case. This will result in a decline in available CE and the remaining loss coverage levels available to the notes. Therefore, note ratings may be susceptible to potential negative rating actions, depending on the extent of the decline in the coverage.

Rating sensitivity results should only be considered as one potential outcome, as the transaction is exposed to multiple dynamic risk factors. Rating sensitivity should not be used as an indicator of future rating performance.

Key Rating Drivers and Rating Sensitivities are further described in the pre-sale report titled 'Navient Student Private Education Loan Trust 2016-A', dated Jan. 21, 2016, on www.fitchratings.com, or by clicking on the link.

DUE DILIGENCE USAGE

Fitch was provided with third-party due diligence information from KPMG LLP. The third-party due diligence focused on comparing or recomputing certain information with respect to 361 loans from the statistical data file. Fitch considered this information in its analysis, and the findings did not have an impact on our analysis. A copy of the ABS Due Diligence Form-15E received by Fitch in connection with this transaction may be obtained through the link contained on the bottom of the related rating action commentary.

Fitch's analysis of the Representations and Warranties (R&W) of this transaction can be found in Navient Private Education Loan Trust 2016-A - Appendix'. These R&Ws are compared to those of typical R&W for the asset class as detailed in the special report 'Representations, Warranties, and Enforcement Mechanisms in Global Structured Finance Transactions' dated June 2015.