NEW YORK –

Kroll Bond Rating Agency (KBRA) weighed in on another element to the completion of Stellantis’ acquisition of First Investors Financial Services Group that created a new captive finance company for the automaker.

While First Investors has been renamed Stellantis Financial Services US Corp., the company that specialized in subprime auto financing still has previously deployed asset-backed securities in the market, which is what KBRA examined this week.

KBRA said it has outstanding ratings on nine securitizations collateralized by retail installment contracts originated under the First investors platform.

KBRA pointed out that First Investors acts as the depositor, seller and servicer and is the provider of certain representations and warranties for the transactions.

“Based on publicly available information and discussions with First Investors management team, KBRA does not believe the acquisition will have a negative ratings impact on the ABS transactions but will continue to monitor the situation,” analysts said in a news release.

First Investors was founded in 1988 and originated subprime paper with consumers whose credit bureau scores ranged from 500 to 650.