Ascent Completes First Ever Public Securitization of Career Education Consumer Loans

News provided by

Sep 11, 2024, 09:00 ET

SAN DIEGO, Sept. 11, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Ascent, a leading provider of innovative financial products and student support services, enabling students to access education and drive durable economic mobility, is proud to announce the closing of its second public securitization, and its first securitization of career education consumer loans. Ascent's career loans provide funding to students attending skills training programs with high return on investment of their education, including coding, automotive, cybersecurity and other trade skills.

The issuance included three classes of fixed-rate notes: Class A, Class B, and Class C, all of which were rated by Morningstar DBRS. Atlas SP acted as structuring agent and Atlas SP and Cantor Fitzgerald acted as bookrunners for the deal. This comes on the heels of the student success company's first public securitization of college loans in a $287 million offering.

With an estimated 57% of high school graduates never enrolling in college and 44 million students attending but not graduating college, Ascent's career loans provide a much-needed alternative, empowering adult learners to attend high ROI programs that drive economic mobility. These learners can benefit from faster program completion and lower tuition due to shorter programs. To date, Ascent has provided $450 million to over 42,000 skills training students, enabling these learners to increase incomes and improve the FICO score of 98% of its borrowers.

"At Ascent, we are passionate about developing innovative products that make entry into the workforce a reality for as many adult learners as possible," said Ken Ruggiero, co-founder and CEO of Ascent. "After our first successful public securitization, I'm proud to have completed our first-ever securitization of career education consumer loans which will help us continue to offer affordable financing to learners and enable growth with more training providers."

"We were able to attract several new investors which allowed us to create this new ABS asset class." said Ryan Gray, Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer of Ascent. "This securitization is transformative to our platform as we continue to provide access for adult learners to pursue skills training for high demand jobs at lower costs.

Ascent is committed to building durable economic mobility for its students. The company is more than a student lender, focused on helping students plan, pay and succeed before, during and after school, remaining steadfast in its goal of improving the income of its borrowers by $10 billion dollars in five years. View the 2023 impact report here.

ABOUT ASCENT
Ascent is a leading provider of innovative financial products and wrap-around student support services that enable more students to access education and achieve academic and economic success. Everything Ascent offers is designed by leading industry professionals and with advanced technology and innovation to increase every student's ability to plan, pay, and succeed. Ascent's rare Outcomes-based Loan provides funding to credit-invisible borrowers who generally do not benefit from traditional credit. Ascent products also include: Cosigned Loans, Solo Loans, Career Loans, Parent Loans, Graduate Loans, Access Loans, Enterprise Loans and Impact Loans.

For more information, visit www.ascentfunding.com.

SOURCE Ascent Funding