DBRS Assigns BBB Rating to UBI’s EUR 500 million Tier 2 Notes; Rating is Under Review Neg

DBRS Ratings Limited (DBRS) has today assigned a BBB rating to the EUR 500 million Mandatory Pay Subordinated Notes (the Notes), which are in the form of Tier 2 Notes (ISIN: XS1580469895), issued by Unione di Banche Italiane SpA (the Issuer, the Bank or UBI) under its EUR 15 billion Debt Issuance Programme (the Programme). The BBB rating assigned to the Subordinated Notes, which is one notch below the Bank’s Intrinsic Assessment (IA) of BBB (high), is Under Review with Negative Implications (URN), due to DBRS’ specific review on European Subordinated Debt. For more details on the rationale of the review, refer to the 13 January 2017 press release <a href="http://www.dbrs.com/research/304611/dbrs-places-certain-sub-debt-of-27-european-banking-groups-under-review-with-negative-implications.html" target="_blank">"DBRS Places Certain Sub Debt of 27 European Banking Groups Under Review With Negative Implications”</a>.

RATING DRIVERS
The rating is currently Under Review with Negative Implications, due to DBRS’ specific review on European Subordinated Debt. The rating is also sensitive to a change in UBI’s Intrinsic Assessment, which is currently BBB (high) with a Negative trend.

Notes:
All figures are in Euros unless otherwise noted.

The principal applicable methodology is the Global Methodology for Rating Banks and Banking Organisations (July 2016). Other applicable methodologies include the DBRS Criteria: Support Assessments for Banks and Banking Organisations (March 2016), DBRS Criteria: Rating Bank Capital Securities – Subordinated, Hybrid, Preferred & Contingent Capital Securities (February 2017), Critical Obligations Rating Criteria (February 2017), DBRS Criteria: Guarantees and Other Forms of Support (February 2017). These can be found at: http://www.dbrs.com/about/methodologies

The sources of information used for this rating include company documents. DBRS considers the information available to it for the purposes of providing this rating to be of satisfactory quality.

This is the first DBRS rating on this financial instrument.

DBRS does not audit the information it receives in connection with the rating process, and it does not and cannot independently verify that information in every instance.

Generally, the conditions that lead to the assignment of a Negative or Positive Trend are resolved within a twelve month period. DBRS’ outlooks and ratings are under regular surveillance.

This rating is under review. Generally, the conditions that lead to the assignment of reviews are resolved within a 90 day period. DBRS reviews and ratings are under regular surveillance.

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: Nicola De Caro, Vice President – Global FIG
Rating Committee Chair: Ross Abercromby, Senior Vice President - Global FIG
Initial Rating Date: November 25, 2015
Most Recent Rating Update: January 20, 2017

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