Social Finance closed on a $412 million post-graduate private student loan securitization, SOFI 2015-B after pricing the transaction at the tightest spreads yet.
The issuer pays swaps plus 110 basis points on the 3.6-year, class A-2 notes, yielding investors 2.5%. By comparison SoFi paid swaps plus 125 basis points on the class A2 notes issued from its last securitization that priced on January 27.
SoFi’s latest deal benefits from higher ratings relative to its four previous deals. Moody’s Investor Service, Standard & Poor’s and DBRS rated the notes Aa2’/’A’/’AA’ (high) respectively. Moody’s assigned the notes ratings that are three notches above the level on the class A notes of SoFi’s previous deal.
“Securing the highest ratings for a marketplace lender is further proof of the stability and appeal of our platform and the category overall,” said Nino Fanlo, SoFi CFO and COO.
The class A notes have a targeted overcollateralization level of 18.86%, compared with just 11.94% for the class A notes of SoFi’s previous deal, 2014-A.
The transaction was comprised of $146.676 million of floating rate A-1 notes, $235.445m of fixed rate A-2 notes, and $29.78 million of B bonds. It was backed by $441 million in collateral. Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley led the transaction.
Like Sofi’s first four deals, 2015-B is backed by collateral that is safer, by many measures, than other private student loan securitizations. Most of the loans were to borrowers refinancing debt used to pay for graduate school. Most received medical, law or master in business administration degrees from top-tier schools.
The SoFi 2015-B loan pool also has a weighted average remaining term of 129 months, compared with terms of 180 to 300 months for most other private student loan pools.
It is also the largest securitization to date for a marketplace lender and is the only securitization of refinanced student loans. SoFi has over $2.5 billion dollars in loans funded.
