Frankfurt am Main, November 27, 2012 -- Moody's Investors Service has today confirmed the ratings of four classes
of notes issued by FTPYME Santander 1, FTA, a Spanish SME
ABS transaction originated by Banco Santander S.A. (Baa2/P-2).
This action was primarily driven by the deal's robust performance
thus far. Today's rating action concludes the review initiated
by Moody's on 2 July 2012. A detailed list of affected ratings
is available towards the end of this press release.
RATINGS RATIONALE
"Today's rating action reflects the good performance of this
deal to date and the sufficient levels of available credit enhancement,"
says Anne-Sophie Spirito, a Moody's Assistant Vice
President -- Analyst and lead analyst for the issuer. "The
confirmations also take into account our negative forecast for Spanish
SME performance," adds Ms. Spirito.
Moody's downgraded these notes in July 2012 because of the application
of the Spanish country ceiling. At that time, the rating
agency also placed the notes on review as the rating of the Kingdom of
Spain was on review and because of the need to assess counterparty risk
and reassess credit enhancement levels needed, in light of the deteriorating
credit conditions in Spain.
Considering the deteriorating credit environment in Spain, the rating
agency has updated its default assumption to 10% of the current
pool balance (corresponding to 1% of original pool balance plus
replenishments given the low pool factor of 15% for this deal).
Moody's decreased its recovery rate assumption to a 40% fixed recovery
rate from 45%. This change reflects the ongoing and increasing
difficulty in liquidating the real estate collateral of the loans backed
by a mortgage guarantee, which represent 99% of the pool.
Moody's has finally increased volatility levels in its default scenarios.
To reflect the instability and deteriorating situation in Spain,
the rating agency has increased its volatility assumptions to 83%.
Despite lower recovery and higher volatility expectations for the transaction,
Moody's was able to confirm the ratings of the four classes of notes in
this deal as it shows good performance and credit enhancement levels are
sufficient to offset these negative factors. It is also important
to note that, although the pool factor is low, there is no
particular debtor concentration issue in this deal as the junior notes
are well covered by credit enhancement (credit enhancement below the Class
D notes is higher than the percentage of the pool represented by the 20
biggest debtors).
-- PERFORMANCE
Historically, FTPYME Santander 1 performed better than Moody's Spanish
SME delinquency index, and this has remained the case over recent
periods, during which the index sharply increased while the delinquency
level of the deal rose at a much more moderate pace. Over the last
six months, 90+ day delinquency levels increased by 0.3%
in FTPYME Santander 1 versus a 1.5% increase for the index
over the same period. As of September 2012, 90+ day
delinquencies stood at 1.2% of current pool balance,
versus the index at 4.9%.
-- COUNTERPARTY RISK
The issuer accounts were transferred in June 2012 to Santander UK Plc
(A2/P-1) from Banco Santander S.A.. Banco
Santander S.A. (Baa2/P-2) has remained the swap counterparty
in the transaction, which is neutral for the transaction ratings.
The swap provides support to the notes by guaranteeing a certain level
of excess spread.
-- SENSITIVITY ANALYSIS
Moody's analysed various sensitivities of default rate and volatility
levels to test the robustness of the ratings. In particular,
if the revised levels of volatility were to be increased to 97%,
the ratings of the four tranches would remain unchanged. An increase
of the default rate to 14% of current balance would also have no
impact on the ratings. As such, Moody's analysis encompasses
the assessment of stressed scenarios.
On 21 August 2012, Moody's released a Request for Comment seeking
market feedback on proposed adjustments to its modelling assumptions.
These adjustments are designed to account for the impact of rapid and
significant country credit deterioration on structured finance transactions.
If the adjusted approach is implemented as proposed, the rating
of the notes affected by today's rating action should not be negatively
affected. See "Approach to Assessing the Impact of a Rapid Country
Credit Deterioration on Structured Finance Transactions", (http://www.moodys.com/research/Approach-to-Assessing-the-Impact-of-a-Rapid-Country-Credit--PBS_SF294880)
for further details regarding the implications of the proposed methodology
changes on Moody's ratings.
METHODOLOGIES
The methodologies used in this rating were "Moody's Approach to
Rating CDOs of SMEs in Europe", published in February 2007,
"Refining the ABS SME Approach: Moody's Probability of Default
assumptions in the rating analysis of granular Small and Mid-sized
Enterprise portfolios in EMEA", published in March 2009,
and "Moody's Approach to Rating Granular SME Transactions in Europe,
Middle East and Africa", published in June 2007. Please
see the Credit Policy page on www.moodys.com for a copy
of these methodologies.
Moody's used its excel-based cash flow model, Moody's ABSROM?,
as part of its quantitative analysis of the transaction. Moody's
ABSROM? model enables users to model various features of a standard
European ABS transaction including (1) the specifics of the default distribution
of the assets, their portfolio amortisation profile, yield
or recoveries; and (2) the specific priority of payments, triggers,
swaps and reserve funds on the liability side of the ABS structure.
Moody's ABSROM? User Guide is available on Moody's website and covers
the model's functionality as well as providing a comprehensive index of
the user inputs and outputs
List of Ratings:
Issuer: FTPYME Santander I, Fondo de Titulizaci?n de
Activos
....EUR537.1M B1(G) Notes, Confirmed
at A3 (sf); previously on Jul 2, 2012 Downgraded to A3 (sf)
and Placed Under Review for Possible Downgrade
....EUR134.3M B2 Notes, Confirmed
at A3 (sf); previously on Jul 2, 2012 Downgraded to A3 (sf)
and Placed Under Review for Possible Downgrade
....EUR27M C Notes, Confirmed at A3
(sf); previously on Jul 2, 2012 Downgraded to A3 (sf) and Placed
Under Review for Possible Downgrade
....EUR87.3M D Notes, Confirmed
at Ba3 (sf); previously on Jul 2, 2012 Ba3 (sf) Placed Under
Review for Possible Downgrade
REGULATORY DISCLOSURES
For ratings issued on a program, series or category/class of debt,
this announcement provides relevant regulatory disclosures in relation
to each rating of a subsequently issued bond or note of the same series
or category/class of debt or pursuant to a program for which the ratings
are derived exclusively from existing ratings in accordance with Moody's
rating practices. For ratings issued on a support provider,
this announcement provides relevant regulatory disclosures in relation
to the rating action on the support provider and in relation to each particular
rating action for securities that derive their credit ratings from the
support provider's credit rating. For provisional ratings,
this announcement provides relevant regulatory disclosures in relation
to the provisional rating assigned, and in relation to a definitive
rating that may be assigned subsequent to the final issuance of the debt,
in each case where the transaction structure and terms have not changed
prior to the assignment of the definitive rating in a manner that would
have affected the rating. For further information please see the
ratings tab on the issuer/entity page for the respective issuer on www.moodys.com.
The rating has been disclosed to the rated entity or its designated agent(s)
and issued with no amendment resulting from that disclosure.
Information sources used to prepare the rating are the following:
parties involved in the ratings, and public information.
Moody's did not receive or take into account a third-party
assessment on the due diligence performed regarding the underlying assets
or financial instruments related to the monitoring of this transaction
in the past six months.
Moody's considers the quality of information available on the rated
entity, obligation or credit satisfactory for the purposes of issuing
a rating.
Moody's adopts all necessary measures so that the information it
uses in assigning a rating is of sufficient quality and from sources Moody's
considers to be reliable including, when appropriate, independent
third-party sources. However, Moody's is not
an auditor and cannot in every instance independently verify or validate
information received in the rating process.
Moody's Investors Service may have provided Ancillary or Other Permissible
Service(s) to the rated entity or its related third parties within the
two years preceding the credit rating action. Please see the special
report "Ancillary or other permissible services provided to entities
rated by MIS's EU credit rating agencies" on the ratings disclosure
page on our website www.moodys.com for further information.
Please see the ratings disclosure page on www.moodys.com
for general disclosure on potential conflicts of interests.
Please see the ratings disclosure page on www.moodys.com
for information on (A) MCO's major shareholders (above 5%)
and for (B) further information regarding certain affiliations that may
exist between directors of MCO and rated entities as well as (C) the names
of entities that hold ratings from MIS that have also publicly reported
to the SEC an ownership interest in MCO of more than 5%.
A member of the board of directors of this rated entity may also be a
member of the board of directors of a shareholder of Moody's Corporation;
however, Moody's has not independently verified this matter.
Please see Moody's Rating Symbols and Definitions on the Rating
Process page on www.moodys.com for further information on
the meaning of each rating category and the definition of default and
recovery.
Please see ratings tab on the issuer/entity page on www.moodys.com
for the last rating action and the rating history. The date on
which some ratings were first released goes back to a time before Moody's
ratings were fully digitized and accurate data may not be available.
Consequently, Moody's provides a date that it believes is
the most reliable and accurate based on the information that is available
to it. Please see the ratings disclosure page on our website www.moodys.com
for further information.
Please see www.moodys.com for any updates on changes to
the lead rating analyst and to the Moody's legal entity that has
issued the rating.
Ludovic?Thebault
Analyst
Structured Finance Group
Moody's Deutschland GmbH
An der Welle 5
Frankfurt am Main 60322
Germany
JOURNALISTS: 44 20 7772 5456
SUBSCRIBERS: 44 20 7772 5454
Carole Gintz
VP - Senior Credit Officer
Structured Finance Group
JOURNALISTS: 44 20 7772 5456
SUBSCRIBERS: 44 20 7772 5454
Anne-Sophie Spirito
Asst Vice President - Analyst
Structured Finance Group
JOURNALISTS: 44 20 7772 5456
SUBSCRIBERS: 44 20 7772 5454
Releasing Office:
Moody's Deutschland GmbH
An der Welle 5
Frankfurt am Main 60322
Germany
JOURNALISTS: 44 20 7772 5456
SUBSCRIBERS: 44 20 7772 5454
Moody's confirms four classes of FTPYME Santander 1 SME ABS notes