DBRS Confirms Ratings on Civitas SPV S.r.l. - Series 2017-1

DBRS Ratings GmbH (DBRS) confirmed its ratings on the notes issued by Civitas SPV S.r.l. - Series 2017-1 (the Issuer) as follows:

-- Class A1 at AA (sf)
-- Class A2 at AA (sf)
-- Class B at BBB (low) (sf)

The confirmations follow an annual review of the transaction and are based on the following analytical considerations:
-- Portfolio performance, in terms of delinquencies, defaults and losses;
-- No revolving termination events have occured;
-- Current available credit enhancement (CE) to the notes to cover the expected losses at their respective rating levels.

The ratings on the Class A1 and Class A2 notes (the Class A notes) address timely payment of interest and ultimate repayment of principal by the final legal maturity date in October 2070. The rating on the Class B notes addresses ultimate payment of interest and repayment of principal by the final legal maturity date.

The Issuer is a securitisation of first-lien Italian residential mortgages originated and serviced by Banca di Cividale S.C.p.A. The transaction closed in July 2017 and incorporates a three-year revolving period.

PORTFOLIO PERFORMANCE
As of the April 2019 payment date, loans that were two- to three-months delinquent represented 0.10% of the outstanding portfolio balance, while loans more than 90 days delinquent represented 0.07%. As of the April 2019 payment date, the gross cumulative default ratio was 0.13%.

REVOLVING PERIOD
The transaction structure allows for additional portfolios to be purchased during a three-year revolving period scheduled to end in July 2020. Additionally, the notes may be increased in size simultaneously such that CE does not decrease. There are concentration limits and purchase termination events in place to mitigate potential portfolio quality deterioration during the revolving period, allowing for amortisation to begin earlier than scheduled if breached. To date, all tests have been passed.

CREDIT ENHANCEMENT
CE is provided by the subordination of the respective junior obligations. As of the April 2019 payment date, CE to the Class A notes was 25.3% and CE to the Class B notes was 15.5%, increased from 22.4% and 13.7% at the initial rating date, respectively. The increase in CE is a result of the partial amortisation of the Class A Notes and the trapping of excess spread in the transaction used to purchase additional receivables.
A cash reserve account, currently funded to EUR 6.6 million, is available to cover senior expenses and interest payments on the Class A notes. The required level of the cash reserve is equal to 2.5% of the outstanding balance of the Class A and Class B notes.

BNP Paribas Securities Services, Milan Branch (BNP Milan) acts as the account bank for the transaction. Based on the DBRS private rating of BNP Milan, the downgrade provisions outlined in the transaction documents, and other mitigating factors inherent in the transaction structure, DBRS considers the risk arising from the exposure to the account bank to be consistent with the ratings assigned to the Class A notes, as described in DBRS's "Legal Criteria for European Structured Finance Transactions" methodology.

The transaction structure was analysed in Intex DealMaker.

Notes:
All figures are in euros unless otherwise noted.

The principal methodology applicable to the ratings is the “Master European Structured Finance Surveillance Methodology”. DBRS has applied the principal methodology consistently and conducted a review of the transaction in accordance with the principal methodology.

An asset and a cash flow analysis were both conducted. Due to the inclusion of a revolving period in the transaction, the analysis continues to be based on the worst-case replenishment criteria set forth in the transaction legal documents.

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 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/333487/rating-sovereign-governments.pdf.

The sources of data and information used for these ratings include investor reports provided by Securitisation Services S.p.A. (the Corporate Servicer), and loan-level data provided by the European DataWarehouse GmbH.

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

At the time of the initial rating, DBRS was 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 these ratings 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 action on this transaction took place on 19 July 2018, when DBRS confirmed the ratings of the Class A notes and Class B notes at AA (sf) and BBB (low), respectively.

The lead analyst responsibilities for this transaction have been transferred to Daniel Rakhamimov.

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

To assess the impact of changing the transaction parameters on the rating, DBRS considered the following stress scenarios as compared with the parameters used to determine the rating (the Base Case):

-- DBRS expected a lifetime base case PD and LGD for the pool based on a review of the current assets. Adverse changes to asset performance may cause stresses to base case assumptions and therefore have a negative effect on credit ratings.
-- The base case PD and LGD of the current pool of loans for the Issuer are 18.2% and 27.1%, respectively.
-- The Risk Sensitivity overview below illustrates the ratings expected if the PD and LGD increase by a certain percentage over the base case assumption. For example, if the LGD increases by 50%, the rating of the Class A notes would be expected to fall to BBB (high) (sf), assuming no change in the PD. If the PD increases by 50%, the rating of the Class A notes would be expected to fall to BBB (sf), assuming no change in the LGD. Furthermore, if both the PD and LGD increase by 50%, the rating of the Class A notes would be expected to fall to BB (high) (sf).

Class A Notes Risk Sensitivity:
-- 25% increase in LGD, expected rating of A (high) (sf)
-- 50% increase in LGD, expected rating of BBB (high) (sf)
-- 25% increase in PD, expected rating of A (low) (sf)
-- 50% increase in PD, expected rating of BBB (sf)
-- 25% increase in PD and 25% increase in LGD, expected rating of BBB (sf)
-- 25% increase in PD and 50% increase in LGD, expected rating of BBB (low) (sf)
-- 50% increase in PD and 25% increase in LGD, expected rating of BBB (low) (sf)
-- 50% increase in PD and 50% increase in LGD, expected rating of BB (high) (sf)

Class B Risk Sensitivity:
-- 25% increase in LGD, expected rating of BB (high) (sf)
-- 50% increase in LGD, expected rating of BB (sf)
-- 25% increase in PD, expected rating of BB (high) (sf)
-- 50% increase in PD, expected rating of BB (low) (sf)
-- 25% increase in PD and 25% increase in LGD, expected rating of BB (low) (sf)
-- 25% increase in PD and 50% increase in LGD, expected rating of B (high) (sf)
-- 50% increase in PD and 25% increase in LGD, expected rating of B (high) (sf)
-- 50% increase in PD and 50% increase in LGD, expected rating of B (sf)

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 GmbH are subject to EU and US regulations only.

Lead Analyst: Daniel Rakhamimov, Senior Financial Analyst
Rating Committee Chair: Alfonso Candelas, Senior Vice President
Initial Rating Date: 19 July 2017

DBRS Ratings GmbH
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60311 Frankfurt am Main Deutschland

Geschäftsführer: Detlef Scholz
Amtsgericht Frankfurt am Main, HRB 110259

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

-- Master European Structured Finance Surveillance Methodology
-- Legal Criteria for European Structured Finance Transactions
-- Operational Risk Assessment for European Structured Finance Servicers
-- Operational Risk Assessment for European Structured Finance Originators
-- Master European Residential Mortgage-Backed Securities Rating Methodology and Jurisdictional
Addenda
-- Interest Rate Stresses for European Structured Finance Transactions

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.

For more information on this credit or on this industry, visit www.dbrs.com or contact us at info@dbrs.com.