DBRS Confirms Banco Comercial Português Covered Bonds Ratings

DBRS Ratings Limited (DBRS) has today confirmed its ratings of “A” on all outstanding series of obrigações hipotecárias (OH; the Portuguese legislative covered bonds) issued under the Banco Comercial Português (BCP or the Issuer) EUR 12,500,000,000 Covered Bonds Programme, following completion of a full review of the ratings.

There are five series of covered bonds outstanding under the Programme for a total amount of EUR 9.2 billion.

The ratings are based on the following analytical considerations:
-- A Covered Bonds Attachment Point (CBAP) of BBB, being the Long-Term Critical Obligations Rating of BCP. BCP is the Issuer and the Reference Entity for the Programme. DBRS does not classify Portugal as a jurisdiction in which covered bonds are a particularly important funding instrument; however, DBRS deems the cover assets strategic for the core activity of the Issuer.
-- A Legal and Structuring Framework (LSF) Assessment of Average associated with the Programme.
-- A Cover Pool Credit Assessment (CPCA) of BB, being the lowest CPCA in line with the final covered bond ratings.
-- An LSF-Implied Likelihood (LSF-L) of BBB (high).
-- A two-notch uplift for high recovery prospects.
-- A level of overcollateralisation (OC) of 16.7% to which DBRS gives credit, being the minimum observed OC level during the past 12 months adjusted by a scaling factor of 0.9. Such level is higher than the level of 14% to which the Issuer commits in its investors report.

The transaction was modelled with DBRS’s European Covered Bond Cash Flow Model. The main assumptions focused on the timing of defaults and recoveries of the assets, interest rate stresses and market value spreads to calculate liquidation values on the cover pool (CP).

Everything else being equal, a downgrade of the CBAP by one notch would lead to a downgrade of the covered bonds rating by one notch. In addition, the ratings of the OH would be downgraded if any of the following occurred: (1) the sovereign rating of the Republic of Portugal were downgraded below BBB (low), (2) the quality and consistency of the CP were no longer sufficient to support a two-notch uplift for high recovery prospects, (3) the relative amortisation profile of OH and CP moved adversely or (4) volatility in the financial markets caused the currently estimated market value spreads to increase.

The total outstanding amount of OH is EUR 9.2 billion, while the aggregate balance of the mortgages in the CP is EUR 10.9 billion (as of 31 December 2016), resulting in total OC of 18.6%, which is above the committed level of 14.0%.

As of 31 December 2016, the mortgage CP comprised 230,695 residential mortgages granted to individuals, with an average loan amount of EUR 47,297. The weighted-average current loan-to-value of the mortgages was 56.3% with a seasoning of 9.6 years. The CP is located mainly in Lisbon (40.8% by outstanding balance), Northern Portugal (31.2%) and Central Portugal (16.1%).

Of the loans in the portfolio, 91.6% pay a floating interest rate, indexed to Euribor, and 8.4% of the loans pay a fixed rate, while 16.3% of the covered bonds are fixed-rate.

As of 31 December 2016, the weighted-average life of the CP was 14 years, which is longer than the 2.7-year weighted-average life on the OH, taking into account the expected maturities. This risk is partly mitigated by the available OC and by a 12-month extendable maturity feature by which, should the Issuer default on its payment on the Covered Bonds at the respective expected maturity date, the covered bond maturities are automatically extended on a monthly basis until 12 months after expected maturity.

DBRS has assessed the LSF related to BCP OH as Average according to its rating methodology. For more information, please refer to DBRS’s “DBRS Assigns LSF Assessment to Portuguese Covered Bonds” and “Portuguese Covered Bonds: Legal and Structuring Framework Review” commentaries, both available at www.dbrs.com.

All CP assets are denominated in euros, as are the OH. As such, investors are not currently exposed to any foreign exchange risk.

For further information on BCP OH, please refer to the rating report that is available on www.dbrs.com.

On 13 March 2023, DBRS Morningstar amended the above press release to correct the Initial Rating Date.

Notes:
All figures are in euros unless otherwise noted.

The principal methodology applicable to the rating is: “Rating European Covered Bonds.”

DBRS has applied the principal methodology consistently and conducted a review of the transaction in accordance with the principal methodology.

A review of the transaction legal documents was not conducted as the legal documents have remained unchanged since the most recent rating action.

Other methodologies referenced in this transaction are listed at the end of this press release. These may be found on www.dbrs.com at: http://www.dbrs.com/about/methodologies.

For a more detailed discussion of sovereign risk impact on Structured Finance ratings, please refer to DBRS’s “The Effect of Sovereign Risk on Securitisations in the Euro Area” commentary on: http://www.dbrs.com/industries/bucket/id/10036/name/commentaries/.

The sources of data and information used for this rating include historical default performance data, loan-by-loan level information and stratification tables on the cover pool provided by the Issuer.

DBRS did not rely upon third-party due diligence in order to conduct its analysis.

At the time of the initial rating, DBRS was not supplied with third-party assessments. However, this did not impact the rating analysis.

DBRS considers the data and information available to it for the purposes of providing this rating to be of satisfactory quality.

DBRS does not audit or independently verify the data or information it receives in connection with the rating process.

The last rating actions on this transaction took place on 18 January 2017, when DBRS confirmed the “A” ratings of BCP OH, following an increase in the amount of Series 5.

Information regarding DBRS ratings, including definitions, policies and methodologies, is available on www.dbrs.com.

For further information on DBRS historical default rates published by the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) in a central repository, see: http://cerep.esma.europa.eu/cerep-web/statistics/defaults.xhtml.

Ratings assigned by DBRS Ratings Limited are subject to EU regulations only.

Lead Analyst: Antonio Laudani, Vice President
Rating Committee Chair: Vito Natale, Senior Vice President
Initial Rating Date: 28 February 2012

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The rating methodologies used in the analysis of this transaction can be found at: http://www.dbrs.com/about/methodologies.

-- Rating European Covered Bonds
-- Rating European Covered Bonds Addendum: Market Value Spreads Range (Midpoints)
-- Global Methodology for Rating Banks and Banking Organisations
-- Critical Obligations Rating Criteria
-- DBRS Criteria: Support Assessments for Banks and Banking Organisations
-- Legal Criteria for European Structured Finance Transactions
-- Derivative Criteria for European Structured Finance Transactions
-- Master European Residential Mortgage-Backed Securities Rating Methodology and Jurisdictional Addenda
-- Operational Risk Assessment for European Structured Finance Originators
-- Operational Risk Assessment for European Structured Finance Servicers
-- Unified Interest Rate Model Methodology for European Securitisations
-- The Effect of Sovereign Risk on Securitisations in the Euro Area

A description of how DBRS analyses structured finance transactions and how the methodologies are collectively applied can be found at: http://www.dbrs.com/research/278375.