DBRS Assigns BBB (high)/R-1 (low) Ratings to Carige’s State Guaranteed Notes Under the Decree 1/2019

DBRS Ratings Limited (DBRS) assigned ratings to the unsubordinated Notes (the Notes) issued by Banca Carige S.p.A. – Cassa di Risparmio di Genova e Imperia (the Bank or Carige), guaranteed by the Italian State under the Law Decree no. 1/2019. DBRS assigned a short-term rating of R-1 (low) to the EUR 1 billion notes due January 25 2020 (ISIN: IT0005359176) and a long-term rating of BBB (high) to the EUR 1 billion notes due July 26 2020 (ISIN: IT0005359184). The trend on these ratings is Stable, in line with the trend on the ratings of the Republic of Italy.

The Notes issued by the Bank are unconditionally and irrevocably guaranteed by the Italian State. The Italian State is committed to ensuring the timely payment of principal and interest in the event that the Bank is not able to fulfil those obligations. Accordingly, the ratings of the Notes are equalised with those of the Republic of Italy and are subject to the maintenance of the Republic of Italy’s Long-Term Foreign and Local Currency ratings of BBB (high), and Short-Term Foreign and Local Currency ratings of R-1 (low), all with a Stable trend.

The ratings on the Notes are subject to the maintenance of the State Guarantee. The guarantee is regulated by the Law Decree no. 1, January 8th 2019, in accordance with the Directive 2014/59/EU. The Decree will need to be converted into law within 60 days from its publication.

RATING DRIVERS
Given the guarantee, the ratings on the State Guaranteed Notes will move in line with the ratings of the Republic of Italy. Upward rating pressure on the ratings for the State Guaranteed Notes would require an improvement of the ratings for the Italian Sovereign. Downward pressure would be driven by a downgrade of the Sovereign’s ratings.

Notes:
All figures are in Euros unless otherwise noted.

The principal applicable methodology is the DBRS Criteria: Guarantees and Other Forms of Support (January 2019). This can be found at: http://www.dbrs.com/about/methodologies

The sources of information used for this rating include company documents and the Ministry of Economy and Finance (MEF). DBRS considers the information available to it for the purposes of providing this rating to be of satisfactory quality.

This rating concerns a newly issued financial instrument. 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’s outlooks 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 and US regulations only.

Lead Analyst: Mario Carrara – Assistant Vice President – Global FIG
Rating Committee Chair: Elisabeth Rudman – Managing Director, Head of EU FIG
Initial Rating Date: January 25, 2019
Most Recent Rating Update: January 25, 2019

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