DBRS Confirms Ratings on Abanca Cédulas Hipotecarias at A (high)

DBRS Ratings Limited (DBRS) confirmed the A (high) ratings assigned to certain Cédulas Hipotecarias (CH or the Spanish mortgage covered bonds) issued by Abanca Corporación Bancaria (Abanca). The confirmation follows the completion of a full review of the Programme.

At the same time, DBRS discontinued the rating on cédula ES0414843203 following the full repayment of the bond, which matured on 13 October 2017.

The ratings are based on the following analytical considerations:
-- A Covered Bonds Attachment Point (CBAP) of BBB. Abanca is the Issuer and Reference Entity for the programme. Abanca was not assigned a Critical Obligations Rating (COR). DBRS considers CH to be systemic funding instruments in Spain; therefore, the CBAP is set at one notch above the Issuer Senior Debt and Deposit rating;
-- A Legal and Structuring Framework (LSF) Assessment of “Average” associated with Abanca CH;
-- A Cover Pool Credit Assessment (CPCA) of BBB (low), which is the lowest CPCA in line with the covered bonds rating;
-- A LSF-Implied Likelihood (LSF-L) of A (low);
-- A two-notch uplift for high recovery prospects; and
-- A level of overcollateralisation (OC) of 271% to which DBRS gives credit, being the minimum observed OC level during the past 12 months adjusted by a scaling factor of 0.90.

The transaction was modelled using the DBRS European Covered Bond Cash Flow Tool. 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 one-notch downgrade of the CBAP would lead to a one-notch downgrade of the LSF-L, resulting in a one-notch downgrade of the covered bonds rating. In addition, all else unchanged, the CH ratings would be downgraded if any of the following occurred: (1) the CPCA was downgraded below BBB (low); (2) the sovereign rating of the Kingdom of Spain was downgraded below A (low); (3) the LSF assessment associated with the programme was downgraded; (4) the quality of the CP and the level of OC were no longer sufficient to support a two-notch uplift for high recovery prospects; (5) the relative amortisation profile of the CH and CP moved adversely; or (6) volatility in the financial markets caused the currently estimated market value spreads to increase.

As of today, the total outstanding amount of CH is EUR 3.47 billion, which includes two DBRS-rated bonds with an outstanding balance of EUR 1.05 billion. As of September 2017, the aggregate balance of the mortgages in the CP was EUR 14.81 billion, resulting in a total OC of 327%. The eligible CP stands at EUR 9.45 billion, resulting in an eligible OC of 173%.

As of 30 September 2017, the CP amounts to EUR 14.81 billion split into 78.9% residential, 13.4% commercial, 3.2% developers, 0.6% land and 4.0% (by outstanding amount) other type of loans. The CP comprises 183,229 mortgages with a weighted-average current unindexed loan-to-value ratio of 60.7%. Approximately 51.2% of the CP is geographically concentrated in Galicia, Abanca’s home region. 3.7% of the CP assets are located outside Spain. The pool is 92 months seasoned on average.

As is customary in the Spanish market, the CH holders do not receive the benefit of any swap contract to hedge the mismatches between the interest yield by the CP (95.5% floating rate linked to different indexes and resets) and the interest due on the CH (95.7% paying fixed and 4.3% paying floating rate linked to different indexes and resets). All liabilities are denominated in euros while 1.0% of the loans were originated in a different currency. These are mainly loans that were originated in Abanca’s Swiss branch. This residual exposure is mitigated by the OC available and accounted for in the Pass-OC.

The WA life of the assets is roughly 11 years as reported by the Issuer, while that of the covered bonds is 3.9 years. This generates an asset-liability mismatch that is partly mitigated by the available OC.

For further information on Abanca CH, please refer to the rating report available on www.dbrs.com.

DBRS has assessed the LSF related to Abanca CH as “Average” according to its rating methodology. For more information, please refer to the DBRS Commentary “Spanish Mortgage Covered Bonds: Legal and Structuring Framework Review” and “DBRS Assigns Legal and Structuring Framework Assessment to Spanish Mortgage Covered Bonds Programmes,” available at www.dbrs.com.

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 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 the sovereign risk impact on Structured Finance ratings, please refer to “Appendix C: The Impact of Sovereign Ratings on Other DBRS Credit Ratings” of the “Rating Sovereign Governments” methodology at: http://dbrs.com/research/319564/rating-sovereign-governments.pdf.

The sources of information used for this rating include historical default performance data and CP stratification tables provided by Abanca that allowed DBRS to further assess the portfolio.

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

DBRS did not rely upon third-party due diligence in order to conduct its analysis. At the time of initial rating, DBRS was not supplied with third party assessments. However, this did not impact the rating analysis.

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

The last rating action on this programme took place on 9 December 2016, when DBRS confirmed the ratings on Abanca CH following completion of the annual deal review.

Information regarding DBRS ratings, including definitions, policies and methodologies are 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 and US regulations only.

Lead Analyst: Alessandra Maggiora, Senior Financial Analyst
Rating Committee Chair: Vito Natale, Senior Vice President
Initial Rating Date: 10 December 2014

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The rating methodologies and criteria 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
-- Global Methodology for Rating Banks and Banking Organisations
-- DBRS Criteria: Guarantees and Other Forms of Support
-- Legal Criteria for European Structured Finance Transactions
-- European RMBS Insight Methodology
-- European RMBS Insight: Spanish Addendum
-- Operational Risk Assessment for European Structured Finance Originators
-- Operational Risk Assessment for European Structured Finance Servicers
-- Rating CLOs and CDOs of Large Corporate Credit
-- Rating CLOs Backed by Loans to European SMEs
-- Unified Interest Rate Model for European Securitisations
-- Rating Sovereign Governments

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.