Morningstar DBRS Finalises Provisional Credit Ratings on Santander Consumo 7 FT

DBRS Ratings GmbH (Morningstar DBRS) finalised its provisional credit ratings on the notes (the Rated Notes) issued by Santander Consumo 7 FT (the Issuer):

-- Class A Notes at AA (sf)
-- Class B Notes at A (high) (sf)
-- Class C Notes at A (sf)
-- Class D Notes at BBB (high) (sf)
-- Class E Notes at B (high) (sf)

Morningstar DBRS does not rate the Class F Notes also issued by the Issuer (collectively with the Rated Notes, the Notes)

The credit rating of the Class A Notes addresses the timely payment of scheduled interest and the ultimate repayment of principal by the legal final maturity date. The credit ratings of the Class B Notes, Class C Notes and the Class D Notes address the ultimate payment of interest (timely when most senior) and the ultimate repayment of principal by the legal final maturity date. The credit rating of the Class E Notes addresses the ultimate payment of interest and the ultimate repayment of principal by the legal final maturity date.

The credit rating assigned to the Class A, Class D, and Class E Notes differ from the provisional credit ratings previously assigned of AA (low) (sf), BBB (sf), and B (sf), respectively, due to the generally lower final spreads of the Notes, which resulted in higher excess spread and improved the results of the analysis conducted by Morningstar DBRS upon the finalisation of its provisional credit ratings.

The transaction is a securitisation of a portfolio of fixed-rate, unsecured, amortising personal loans granted without a specific purpose to private individuals domiciled in Spain and serviced by Banco Santander SA (Santander).

CREDIT RATING RATIONALE
The credit ratings are based on the following analytical considerations:
-- The transaction's structure, including form and sufficiency of available credit enhancement to withstand stressed cash flow assumptions and repay the Issuer's financial obligations according to the terms under which the Rated Notes are issued;
-- The credit quality of the collateral, historical and projected performance of Santander's portfolio, and Morningstar DBRS' projected performance under various stress scenarios;
-- An operational risk review of Santander's capabilities with regard to its originations, underwriting, servicing, and financial strength;
-- The transaction parties' financial strength with regard to their respective roles;
-- Morningstar DBRS' long-term sovereign credit rating on the Kingdom of Spain, currently at "A" with a Positive trend;
-- The consistency of the transaction's structure with Morningstar DBRS' "Legal Criteria for European Structured Finance Transactions" and "Derivative Criteria for European Structured Finance Transactions"

TRANSACTION STRUCTURE
The transaction is static and allocates payments on a combined interest and principal priority of payments and benefits from an amortising cash reserve equal to 1.3% of the outstanding Rated Notes balance, subject to a floor of 0.5% of the initial Rated Notes amount. The cash reserve is part of available funds to cover shortfalls in senior expenses, senior swap payments as well as interest on the Class A, Class B, Class C, and Class D Notes and, if not deferred, the Class E Notes. Interest and (if applicable) principal payments of the Notes will be made quarterly.

The repayment of the Rated Notes will be on a pro rata basis until a subordination event. Upon the occurrence of a subordination event, the repayment of the Notes will switch to non-reversible sequential. Furthermore, the unrated Class F Notes will begin amortising immediately only after the Rated Notes are fully repaid with a target amortisation equal to 10% of the initial balance on each payment date.

The Notes pay floating interest rates based on three-month Euribor whereas the portfolio comprises fixed-rate loans. The interest rate mismatch risk between the Notes and the portfolio is considered mitigated by an interest rate swap agreement.

The weighted-average portfolio yield is 6.7%.

TRANSACTION COUNTERPARTIES
Santander is the account bank for the transaction. Based on Morningstar DBRS' Long-Term Issuer Rating of A (high) on Santander, the downgrade provisions outlined in the transaction documents and other mitigating factors in the transaction structure, Morningstar DBRS considers the risk arising from the exposure to the account bank to be consistent with the credit ratings assigned to the Rated Notes.

Santander is also the swap counterparty for the transaction. Morningstar DBRS has a Long-Term Issuer Rating of A (high) on Santander, which meets Morningstar DBRS' criteria with respect to its role. The transaction also has downgrade provisions largely consistent with Morningstar DBRS' criteria.

PORTFOLIO ASSUMPTIONS
Morningstar DBRS established a lifetime expected default of 4.5%, reflecting the historical performance of each loan type, standard loans and pre-approved loans. Morningstar DBRS also revised the expected recovery to 15% from 20% applied in the Santander Consumo 6 transaction, after considering the longer data series and deterioration of the last quarter performance.

Morningstar DBRS' credit ratings on the Rated Notes address the credit risk associated with the identified financial obligations in accordance with the relevant transaction documents. The associated financial obligations for each class of the Rated Notes are the related Interest Amounts and Principal.

Morningstar DBRS' credit ratings do not address non-payment risk associated with contractual payment obligations contemplated in the applicable transaction documents that are not financial obligations.

Morningstar DBRS' long-term credit ratings provide opinions on risk of default. Morningstar DBRS considers risk of default to be the risk that an issuer will fail to satisfy the financial obligations in accordance with the terms under which a long-term obligation has been issued.

ENVIRONMENTAL, SOCIAL, AND GOVERNANCE CONSIDERATIONS
There were no Environmental/Social/Governance factors that had a significant or relevant effect on the credit analysis.

A description of how Morningstar DBRS considers ESG factors within the Morningstar DBRS analytical framework can be found in the Morningstar DBRS Criteria: Approach to Environmental, Social, and Governance Factors in Credit Ratings at https://dbrs.morningstar.com/research/437781.

Morningstar DBRS analysed the transaction structure in Intex Dealmaker.

Notes:
All figures are in euros unless otherwise noted.

The principal methodology applicable to the credit ratings is Rating European Consumer and Commercial Asset-Backed Securitisations (18 September 2024), https://dbrs.morningstar.com/research/439583.

Other methodologies referenced in this transaction are listed at the end of this press release.

Morningstar 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.

For a more detailed discussion of the sovereign risk impact on Structured Finance credit ratings, please refer to "Appendix C: The Impact of Sovereign Ratings on Other Morningstar Morningstar Credit Ratings" of the "Global Methodology for Rating Sovereign Governments" at https://dbrs.morningstar.com/research/436000.

The sources of data and information used for these credit ratings include the historical data provided by the originator as below and of previous Santander consumer loan transactions:
-- Quarterly static cumulative default data from Q1 2012 to Q2 2024
-- Quarterly static cumulative recovery data from Q1 2012 to Q2 2024
-- Prepayment data of previous Santander consumer loan securitisation transactions

Morningstar DBRS also received a set of stratification tables and loan-by-loan data in relation to the provisional collateral pool and its related contractual amortisation schedule as of 6 November 2024.

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

Morningstar DBRS was supplied with third-party assessments. However, this did not affect the credit rating analysis.

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

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

These credit ratings concern newly issued financial instruments. These are the first Morningstar DBRS credit ratings on these financial instruments.

This is the first credit rating action since the Initial Credit Rating Date.

Information regarding Morningstar DBRS credit ratings, including definitions, policies, and methodologies, is available on https://dbrs.morningstar.com.

Sensitivity Analysis: To assess the impact of changing the transaction parameters on the credit ratings, Morningstar DBRS considered the following stress scenarios as compared with the parameters used to determine the credit ratings:

-- Expected default: 4.50%
-- Expected recovery: 15% or loss given default (LGD) 85%

Scenario 1: A 25% increase in the expected default
Scenario 2: A 50% increase in the expected default
Scenario 3: A 25% increase in the expected LGD
Scenario 4: A 25% increase in the expected default and a 25% increase in the expected LGD
Scenario 5: A 50% increase in the expected default and a 25% increase in the expected LGD

Morningstar DBRS concludes that the expected credit ratings under the five stress scenarios would be:
-- Class A Notes: A (high) (sf), A (sf), AA (low) (sf), A (sf), A (low) (sf)
-- Class B Notes: A (sf), BBB (high) (sf), A (high) (sf), A (low) (sf), BBB (sf)
-- Class C Notes: BBB (high) (sf), BBB (sf), A (low) (sf), BBB (sf), BBB (low) (sf)
-- Class D Notes: BBB (low) (sf), BB (high) (sf), BBB (sf), BB (high) (sf), BB (sf)
-- Class E Notes: B (low) for scenarios 1 and 3, and below B (low) (sf) for all other scenarios

For further information on Morningstar DBRS historical default rates published by the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) in a central repository, see: https://registers.esma.europa.eu/cerep-publication. For further information on Morningstar DBRS' historical default rates published by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in a central repository, see https://data.fca.org.uk/#/ceres/craStats.

These credit ratings are endorsed by DBRS Ratings Limited for use in the United Kingdom.

Lead Analyst: María López, Senior Vice President
Rating Committee Chair: Paolo Conti, Associate Managing Director
Initial Rating Date: 21 October 2024

DBRS Ratings GmbH, Sucursal en España
Paseo de la Castellana 81
Plantas 26 & 27 28046 Madrid, Spain
Tel. +34 (91) 903 6500

DBRS Ratings GmbH
Neue Mainzer Straße 75
60311 Frankfurt am Main Deutschland
Tel. +49 (69) 8088 3500
Geschäftsführer: Detlef Scholz
Amtsgericht Frankfurt am Main, HRB 110259

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

-- Rating European Consumer and Commercial Asset-Backed Securitisations (18 September 2024)
https://dbrs.morningstar.com/research/439583
-- Rating European Structured Finance Transactions Methodology (18 September 2024),
https://dbrs.morningstar.com/research/439581
-- Legal Criteria for European Structured Finance Transactions (28 June 2024),
https://dbrs.morningstar.com/research/435165
-- Derivative Criteria for European Structured Finance Transactions (6 September 2024),
https://dbrs.morningstar.com/research/439043
-- Interest Rate Stresses for European Structured Finance Transactions (24 September 2024),
https://dbrs.morningstar.com/research/439913
-- Operational Risk Assessment for European Structured Finance Originators and Servicers (18 September 2024),
https://dbrs.morningstar.com/research/439571
-- Morningstar DBRS Criteria: Approach to Environmental, Social, and Governance Factors in Credit Ratings (13 August 2024),
https://dbrs.morningstar.com/research/437781

A description of how Morningstar DBRS analyses structured finance transactions and how the methodologies are collectively applied can be found at https://dbrs.morningstar.com/research/439604.

For more information on this credit or on this industry, visit https://dbrs.morningstar.com or contact us at info-DBRS@morningstar.com.