Three deals backed by consumer debt add $1.8 billion to the primary securitization pipeline this week.
USAA Bank is marketing its first retail auto loan transaction of the year, the $500 million AUTO OWNER TRUST 2014-1. Standard & Poor’s assigned preliminary ratings of A-1+’ to the money market fund, A-1 tranche. The longer-dated A-2, A-3 and A-4 notes are rated AAA’ and also on offer are $8.82 million of A’ rated class B notes.
The deal is expected to close Feb. 28. JP Morgan is lead underwriter on the deal.
USAA last came to market in September 2012. Compared with this deal, the one currently being marketed has a larger percentage of loans with original maturities greater than 60 months: 51.76% vs 44.87%. The weighted average seasoning of loans also increased to 16 months in the latest deal from 15 months previously, while the weighted average annual percentage rate decreased to 4.26% from 4.94%, according to S&P's presale report.
There are also two new offerings of student loan backed securities.
Fitch Ratings has assigned preliminary ratings to the Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency's (PHEAA) offering of $640 million of notes backed by Federal Family Eduaction Loan Program loans. The deal, PHEAA Student Loan Trust 2014-1, is structured with $627.5 million of 'AAA'-rated , class A notes and $12.5 million of 'A'-rated class B notes.
According to structured finance analytics firm Interactive Data, Sallie Mae is premarketing a $676 million student loan backed securitization. Interactive Data did not indicate whether the deal is backed by private student loans or FFELP loans.
Last week just two ABS deals were priced totaling $1.9 billion. Year-to-date, issuance stands at $28.5 billion, roughly $3.5 billion behind last year’s figure, according to Wells Fargo.
The pipeline, said S&P analysts, continues to build at a moderate pace. “Issuance during the first three weeks of February is roughly equal to the January total, indicating a moderate month-over-month increase, [but] volumes thus far in 2014 are down a third on a year-over-year basis,” said analysts.
