London, 23 December 2014 -- Moody's Investors Service has today downgraded the ratings on a
total of 13 notes in 2 UK buy-to-let residential mortgage
backed securities transactions, Paragon Mortgages (No. 9)
PLC (Paragon 9) and Paragon Mortgages (No. 11) PLC (Paragon 11).
Today's downgrades conclude the rating review due to strong linkage
of the notes to Royal Bank of Scotland plc (RBS, Baa1/P-2)
and Barclays Bank PLC (Barclays, A2/P-1) acting as cross
currency swap counterparties, in Paragon 9 and Paragon 11,
respectively.
For a detailed list of the affected ratings, see towards the end
of the press release before the regulatory disclosures section.
RATINGS RATIONALE
Both transactions have very high exposure to the currency swap counterparties.
Moody's applied the approach described in "Approach to Assessing
Swap Counterparties in Structured Finance Cash Flow Transactions",
published on 12 November 2013, to assess the impact of the strong
swap exposure on the notes' ratings.
-- Paragon 9
RBS, currently rated at Baa1, is the currency swap provider
to the transaction. Following the rating downgrade from A3 to Baa1
on 13 March 2014, RBS has also breached the swap counterparty transfer
rating trigger. The transaction's total exposure to the currency
swap is 54% of the transaction's total rated notes.
Since the last rating action on 29 Jul 2014 when all notes ratings were
placed on review for downgrade, RBS has not implemented remedial
measures to mitigate the swap counterparty risks. As a result,
Moody's downgrades Classes A, B, and C notes'
ratings to Aa2(sf), Baa2(sf), and Baa3(sf) respectively.
-- Paragon 11
Barclays, currently rated at A2, is the currency swap provider
to the transaction. Although Barclays has not breached any swap
counterparty rating triggers, the transaction has a very high exposure
to the currency swap, at 84% of the total rated notes.
Prior to the last rating action on the notes on 6 May 2014, Barclays
indicated its intention to restructure the currency swaps to mitigate
the transaction's currency swap counterparty risk exposure as assessed
by Moody's methodology. Since then, Barclays has not
implemented the proposed restructuring. As a result, Moody's
downgrades long-term ratings on Classes A, B, and C
notes' ratings to Aa1(sf), Aa3(sf), and A3(sf) respectively.
The principal methodology used in these ratings was "Moody's Approach
to Rating RMBS Using the MILAN Framework" published in March 2014.
Please see the Credit Policy page on www.moodys.com for
a copy of this methodology.
Factors that would lead to an upgrade or downgrade of the ratings:
Upward pressure on the ratings could result from (1) implementation of
remedial actions that could fully mitigate the swap counterparty risk
; and (2) a decline in counterparty risk.
Downward pressure on the ratings could result from (1) worse-than-expected
performance of the underlying collateral; (2) deterioration in the
counterparties' credit quality or a rise in country risk.
List of Affected Ratings:
Issuer: Paragon Mortgages (No. 9) PLC
....GBP 346M Class Aa Notes, Downgraded
to Aa2 (sf); previously on Jul 29, 2014 Aa1 (sf) Placed Under
Review for Possible Downgrade
....EUR 355M Class Ab Notes, Downgraded
to Aa2 (sf); previously on Jul 29, 2014 Aa1 (sf) Placed Under
Review for Possible Downgrade
....US$ 60M Class Ac Notes, Downgraded
to Aa2 (sf); previously on Jul 29, 2014 Aa1 (sf) Placed Under
Review for Possible Downgrade
....GBP 7M Class Ba Notes, Downgraded
to Baa2 (sf); previously on Jul 29, 2014 A1 (sf) Placed Under
Review for Possible Downgrade
....EUR 29.5M Class Bb Notes,
Downgraded to Baa2 (sf); previously on Jul 29, 2014 A1 (sf)
Placed Under Review for Possible Downgrade
....GBP 3M Class Ca Notes, Downgraded
to Baa3 (sf); previously on Jul 29, 2014 A2 (sf) Placed Under
Review for Possible Downgrade
....EUR 66M Class Cb Notes, Downgraded
to Baa3 (sf); previously on Jul 29, 2014 A2 (sf) Placed Under
Review for Possible Downgrade
Issuer: Paragon Mortgages (No. 11) PLC
....US$ 985M Class A1 Notes,
Downgraded to Aa1 (sf); previously on May 6, 2014 Aaa (sf)
Remained On Review for Possible Downgrade
....GBP 149.5M Class A2a Notes,
Downgraded to Aa1 (sf); previously on May 6, 2014 Aaa (sf)
Remained On Review for Possible Downgrade
....EUR 219.7M Class A2b Notes,
Downgraded to Aa1 (sf); previously on May 6, 2014 Aaa (sf)
Remained On Review for Possible Downgrade
....GBP 16M Class B1a Notes, Downgraded
to Aa3 (sf); previously on May 6, 2014 Aa2 (sf) Remained On
Review for Possible Downgrade
....EUR 82.4M Class B1b Notes,
Downgraded to Aa3 (sf); previously on May 6, 2014 Aa2 (sf)
Remained On Review for Possible Downgrade
....EUR 87.5M Class C1b Notes,
Downgraded to A3 (sf); previously on May 6, 2014 A2 (sf) Remained
On Review for Possible Downgrade
REGULATORY DISCLOSURES
For further specification of Moody's key rating assumptions and sensitivity
analysis, see the sections Methodology Assumptions and Sensitivity
to Assumptions of the disclosure form.
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 these transactions
in the past six months.
The analysis relies on an assessment of collateral characteristics to
determine the collateral loss distribution, that is, the function
that correlates to an assumption about the likelihood of occurrence to
each level of possible losses in the collateral. As a second step,
Moody's evaluates each possible collateral loss scenario using a
model that replicates the relevant structural features to derive payments
and therefore the ultimate potential losses for each rated instrument.
The loss a rated instrument incurs in each collateral loss scenario,
weighted by assumptions about the likelihood of events in that scenario
occurring, results in the expected loss of the rated instrument.
Moody's quantitative analysis entails an evaluation of scenarios
that stress factors contributing to sensitivity of ratings and take into
account the likelihood of severe collateral losses or impaired cash flows.
Moody's weights the impact on the rated instruments based on its
assumptions of the likelihood of the events in such scenarios occurring.
For ratings issued on a program, series or category/class of debt,
this announcement provides certain 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 certain 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 certain 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.
For any affected securities or rated entities receiving direct credit
support from the primary entity(ies) of this rating action, and
whose ratings may change as a result of this rating action, the
associated regulatory disclosures will be those of the guarantor entity.
Exceptions to this approach exist for the following disclosures,
if applicable to jurisdiction: Ancillary Services, Disclosure
to rated entity, Disclosure from rated entity.
Regulatory disclosures contained in this press release apply to the credit
rating and, if applicable, the related rating outlook or rating
review.
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.
Please see the ratings tab on the issuer/entity page on www.moodys.com
for additional regulatory disclosures for each credit rating.
Lyudmila Udot
Asst Vice President - Analyst
Structured Finance Group
Moody's Investors Service Ltd.
One Canada Square
Canary Wharf
London E14 5FA
United Kingdom
JOURNALISTS: 44 20 7772 5456
SUBSCRIBERS: 44 20 7772 5454
Carole Gintz
Senior Vice President/Manager
Structured Finance Group
JOURNALISTS: 44 20 7772 5456
SUBSCRIBERS: 44 20 7772 5454
Kevin Ma
Analyst
Structured Finance Group
JOURNALISTS: 44 20 7772 5456
SUBSCRIBERS: 44 20 7772 5454
Releasing Office:
Moody's Investors Service Ltd.
One Canada Square
Canary Wharf
London E14 5FA
United Kingdom
JOURNALISTS: 44 20 7772 5456
SUBSCRIBERS: 44 20 7772 5454
Moody's downgrades 13 notes in Paragon Mortgages (No. 9) PLC and Paragon Mortgages (No. 11) PLC