Approximately USD 30 billion of ECP and USD 28 billion of USCP affected.
London, February 16, 2012 -- Moody's Investors Service has today placed on review for downgrade the
Prime-1 (sf) ratings of 13 European asset-backed commercial
paper (ABCP) programmes. The announcement follows Moody's
decision to review for downgrade the short-term ratings of several
European banks supporting these ABCP programmes. For full details,
please refer to the webpage containing all of Moody's related announcements
http://www.moodys.com/EUSovereign.
For rating actions affecting US ABCP programmes, please refer to
the press release "Moody's Places 7 US ABCP Programs and 4
ABCP LOC Programs on Review for Possible Downgrade" published on
today's date. For Australian ABCP programmes, please
refer to the press release "Moody's places on review Prime-1
(sf) of two Australian ABCP programs sponsored by RBS".
Please click on http://www.moodys.com/viewresearchdoc.aspx?docid=PBS_SF276820
for the List of Affected Credit ratings. This list is an integral
part of this press release and identifies each affected issuer.
RATINGS RATIONALE
Today's rating announcement was prompted by Moody's recent
decision to place on review for downgrade the short-term ratings
of the financial institutions that act as liquidity and/or credit support
providers for the respective programmes. These parties have obligations
in certain circumstances to provide funds, which would be used to
repay maturing ABCP. The rating of each programme is therefore
directly correlated with the rating of the support provider. For
bank-sponsored programmes, the sponsor is not only the main
or sole liquidity provider, but also plays various roles in the
programme, such as those of administrator, hedging agent and
hedging counterparty or account bank.
Moody's expects to conclude its review of the affected programmes
in conjunction with the review on the ratings of the respective support
providers. During the review period, Moody's will also
take into consideration any amendment or restructuring of the programme
aimed at removing the direct linkage with the affected support provider.
Below is a summary rating rationale for each group of affected programmes
split by sponsoring entity.
- LLOYDS AND BANK OF SCOTLAND SPONSORED ABCP PROGRAMMES
The ratings of the two ABCP programmes Cancara Asset Securitisation Limited
/ Cancara Asset Securitisation LLC ("Cancara") and Argento
Variable Funding Co Ltd/Argento Variable Funding Co LLC, which are
administered by Lloyds TBS Bank Plc ("Lloyds"), are
directly linked to the ratings of the programme's liquidity providers
Lloyds and the Bank of Scotland plc ("Bank of Scotland") (both
A1 on review for downgrade, P-1 on review for downgrade).
Additionally, Lloyds provides hedging services to both programmes
and a programme-wide letter of credit to Cancara.
Bank of Scotland and Lloyds are the liquidity providers to Grampian Funding
Limited, a fully supported securities arbitrage programme,
which is sponsored and administered by Bank of Scotland.
The rating of Landale Funding Corp is directly linked to the rating of
Bank of Scotland, its sponsor, administrator and account bank,
and also to the rating of its liquidity providers. One of them,
Danske Bank A/S, had its A2 long term and P-1 short-term
ratings placed on review for downgrade on 15 February 2012.
- ROYAL BANK OF SCOTLAND PLC SPONSORED ABCP PROGRAMMES
The ratings of Thames Asset Global Securitization No. 1,
Inc, ("TAGS"), Orchid Funding Corporation and
Churchill Loan Asset Securitisation Programme, LLC, are directly
linked to the ratings of their sponsor Royal Bank of Scotland Plc (RBS,
A2 on review for downgrade, P-1 on review for downgrade),
which acts as the principal liquidity provider in all programmes and provides
programme-wide credit enhancement to TAGS.
- INTESA SANPAOLO'S ROMULUS FUNDING ABCP PROGRAMME
Intesa SanPaolo S.p.A. is the sponsor and sole provider
of liquidity and hedging facilities to Romulus Funding Corporation,
a partially supported hybrid programme administered by Banca IMI Securities
Corp., a subsidiary of Banca IMI S.p.A.
The P-1 short-term and A2 long term ratings of both Intesa
SanPaolo and Banca IMI are on review for downgrade.
- LBBW'S WEINBERG CAPITAL ABCP PROGRAMME
Landesbank Baden-W?rttemberg ( "LBBW", A2
on review for downgrade and P-1 on review for downgrade) is the
sponsor and sole provider of liquidity and hedging facilities to Weinberg
Capital Limited / Weinberg Capital LLC, a fully supported multi-seller
programme, as well as programme administrator.
- BSN CAPITAL'S REPO ABCP PROGRAMMES CHESHAM FINANCE,
EBURY FINANCE AND HALKIN FINANCE
Chesham Finance Ltd/Chesham Finance LLC and Ebury Finance Ltd/Ebury Finance
LLC have exposure to a repo counterparty whose short-term P-1
rating is on review for downgrade.
Halkin Finance plc/Halkin Finance LLC has exposure to a repo counterparty
and a swap counterparty whose short-term P-1 ratings are
on review for downgrade.
All repo trades with affected repo counterparties (other than one small,
short-dated trade in Chesham), have an "on-demand
put" option under which the repo counterparty is obliged to repurchase
related assets upon the programme's request. Upon successful
exercise of this "put", resulting in the exposure to the affected
counterparty being completely removed and in the absence of any exposure
to affected swap counterparties, the Prime-1 (sf) rating
of the exercising programme would be confirmed.
- NORTHCROSS CAPITAL'S REPO ABCP PROGRAMME ANGLESEA FUNDING
Anglesea Funding plc/Anglesea Funding LLC has exposure to a repo counterparty
which has had its short-term P-1 rating placed on review
for downgrade. Removal of this counterparty would lead to the Prime-1
(sf) rating of Anglesea being confirmed.
PRINCIPAL METHODOLOGY
The methodologies used in these ratings were Moody's Approach to Rating
Asset-Backed Commercial Paper published in February 2003,
and Impact of Rating Actions on Counterparties in Repo ABCP Programmes
- SUPPLEMENT published in October 2009. Please see the Credit
Policy page on www.moodys.com for a copy of these methodologies.
No models, loss and cash flow analysis or simulation of stress scenarios
have been used in this analysis, as the rating announcement is based
solely on Moody's decision to place on review for downgrade the Prime-1
ratings of the related support providers.
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 ratings have been disclosed to the rated entities or their designated
agent(s) and issued with no amendment resulting from that disclosure.
Information sources used to prepare each of 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 these transactions
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
this review.
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 their 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.
The below contact information is provided for information purposes only.
Please see the issuer page on www.moodys.com for Moody's
regulatory disclosure of the name of the lead analyst and the office that
has issued the credit rating.
Sophie Berthelon
Senior Vice President
Structured Finance Group
Moody's France SAS
96 Boulevard Haussmann
Paris 75008
France
JOURNALISTS: 44 20 7772 5456
SUBSCRIBERS: 44 20 7772 5454
Everett Rutan
Senior Vice President
Structured Finance Group
JOURNALISTS: 212-553-0376
SUBSCRIBERS: 212-553-1653
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 reviews for downgrade Prime-1 (sf) ratings of 13 European ABCP programmes