Press Release

DBRS and Morningstar Credit Ratings Confirm U.S. ABS Whole Business Asset Class Coverage

Other
December 03, 2019

On July 11, 2019, Morningstar Credit Ratings, LLC (MCR) and DBRS, Inc. (DBRS; together, DBRS Morningstar) published their first announcement regarding the integration of the analytical teams focused on the U.S. Structured Finance market. Today’s press release is the nineteenth in a series to keep the market updated on analytical integration decisions and is focused on the U.S. asset-backed securities (ABS) sector.

<a href="https://www.dbrs.com/research/347875/" target="_blank">"DBRS and Morningstar Credit Ratings Announce Analytical Integration Process and Ratings Overlap"</a>

WHOLE BUSINESS SECURITIZATION ASSET CLASS
Following an analysis of the Whole Business asset class, DBRS Morningstar concluded that, effective today, any new rating engagements in this asset class will be rated and monitored by DBRS Morningstar using MCR’s U.S. ABS General Ratings Methodology. This methodology is now available on www.dbrs.com:

<a href="https://www.dbrs.com/research/353820/" target="_blank">"U.S. ABS General Ratings Methodology"</a> (December 2019)

WHOLE BUSINESS ASSET CLASS TRANSACTIONS PLACED UNDER REVIEW
As a result of DBRS Morningstar’s selection of MCR’s U.S. ABS General Ratings Methodology for Whole Business ratings, MCR has placed all four of its outstanding transactions and seven outstanding classes in this asset class Under Review – Analytical Integration Review. The rating actions on such ratings were taken in relation to the future combination of MCR and DBRS into one single U.S. registration. DBRS Morningstar expects to assign new ratings to the outstanding MCR Whole Business asset class transactions.

For more information related to the rating actions taken on the Whole Business asset class, please see the following rating announcement:

<a href="https://ratingagency.morningstar.com/PublicDocDisplay.aspx?i=3Bt9CkzeUqY%3d&m=&s=LviRtUKXqs8kml5dHt7FTeE2SZmY0Fvqd4iX49Mk%2f9UapyiFTEO6TA%3d%3d" target="_blank">"Morningstar Credit Ratings Places Ratings on Coinstar Funding, LLC Series 2017-1, Coinstar Funding, LLC Series 2018-1, SESAC Finance, LLC, Series 2019-1 and ME Funding, LLC, Series 2019-1 Under Review"</a>

DBRS Morningstar methodologies, including any MCR methodology selected for use by DBRS Morningstar as part of the analytical integration process, are publicly available on www.dbrs.com under Methodologies & Criteria.

For analytical inquiries regarding this press release, please contact Chris D’Onofrio, Managing Director, U.S. ABS.

DBRS
Chris D’Onofrio
cdonofrio@dbrs.com
+1 212 806 3284

For rating engagement inquiries regarding the U.S. ABS asset class coverage or any asset classes not listed, please contact Sean O’Connor, Managing Director, Head of Global Business Development.

DBRS
Sean O’Connor
soconnor@dbrs.com
+1 212 806 3252

For more information on the transactions rated by DBRS, please visit <a href="http://www.dbrs.com" target=blank">www.dbrs.com</a> or contact DBRS at info@dbrs.com. For transactions rated by MCR, please visit <a href="http://www.morningstarcreditratings.com" target=blank">www.morningstarcreditratings.com</a> or contact ratingagency@morningstar.com.

DBRS
Stephen Bernard
sbernard@dbrs.com
+1 212 806 3240