OREANDA-NEWS. S&P Global Ratings today assigned its ratings to Honda Auto Receivables 2016-3 Owner Trust's $1.5 billion asset-backed notes series 2016-3 (see list).

The note issuance is an asset-backed securities transaction backed by prime auto loan receivables.

The ratings reflect: The availability of approximately 5.9% credit support for the class A-1, A-2, A-3, and A-4 notes (collectively, the class A notes) based on stressed cash flow scenarios. This credit support level provides 9.8x coverage of our high-end expected net loss range of 0.50%-0.60% to the class A notes. The timely interest and principal payments made under stressed cash flow modeling scenarios that are appropriate for each rating category. The loss projections based on our review of American Honda Finance Corp.'s (Honda's) previous securitization performance, origination static pool data, and managed portfolio data; Honda's deal-level collateral characteristics compared with its prime auto finance company peers; and our forward-looking view of the economy. Our expectation that under a moderate ('BBB') stress scenario, all else being equal, our ratings on the notes will not decline by more than one rating category from the assigned ratings over a 12-month period. Our ratings stability criteria describe the outer bound of credit deterioration within one year as being one rating category for 'AAA' rated securities (see "Methodology: Credit Stability Criteria," published May 3, 2010).The credit enhancement in the form of an unrated subordinate certificate, a reserve fund, a yield supplement account, and excess spread. The pool of prime auto loans, which has a weighted average FICO score of 763 and weighted average seasoning of approximately 13 months. Honda's extensive securitization history and the performance of its transactions, which, in our view, have exhibited consistently low loss levels. The transaction's payment and legal structures.