DBRS Assigns Provisional Ratings to Rural Hipotecario XIV, Fondo de Titulización de Activos Notes

DBRS Ratings Limited (“DBRS”) has today assigned a provisional rating of ‘A’ (sf) to the Series A notes and a provisional rating of BB (low) (sf) to the Series B notes issued by Rural Hipotecario XIV, Fondo de Titulización de Activos (“RH XIV”).

RH XIV is the securitisation of first-ranking mortgage loans originated by Nueva Caja Rural de Aragón S.C.C. (“Bantierra”). The mortgage portfolio is seasoned 4.8 years and is serviced by Bantierra.

The credit enhancement for the Series A notes is provided by the subordination of Series B and an amortising reserve fund. The Series A notes benefits from a fully sequential amortisation structure. The credit enhancement for Series B is provided by the amortising reserve fund.

The Series B notes allow for deferment of interest to be paid based on specific trigger conditions.

The ratings are based upon DBRS review of the following analytical considerations:

• The transaction’s capital structure and the form and sufficiency of available credit enhancement. Relevant credit enhancement is in the form of subordination, a reserve fund, and excess spread.
• The credit quality of the mortgages backing the notes and the ability of the servicer to perform collection activities on the collateral.
• The transaction parties’ capabilities with respect to originations, underwriting, servicing and financial strength.
• The ability of the transaction to withstand stressed cash flow assumptions and repay investors according to the terms of the transaction documents.
• The legal structure and presence of legal opinions addressing the assignment of the assets to the issuer and the consistency with the DBRS Legal Criteria for European Structured Finance Transactions.

Notes:
All figures are in Euro unless otherwise noted.

The principal methodologies applicable are:
• Master European Residential Mortgage-Backed Securities Rating Methodology
• Legal Criteria for European Structured Finance Transactions
• Operational Risk Assessment for European Structured Finance Servicers
• Unified Interest Rate Model Methodology for European Securitisations

These can be found on dbrs.com under Methodologies. For a more detailed discussion of sovereign risk impact on Structured Finance ratings, please refer to DBRS commentary “The Effect of Sovereign Risk on Securitisations in the Euro Area”.

The sources of information used for this rating include investor reports and documents provided by the issuer. DBRS considers the information available to it for the purposes of providing this rating was of satisfactory quality. The information provided to us was subjected to a reasonableness review but has not been verified.

These ratings concern newly issued financial instruments. This is the first DBRS rating on these financial instruments.

For additional information on this rating, please see the linking document which is located at http://www.dbrs.com/research/259062/linking-document-rural-hipotecario-xiv-fondo-de-titulizaci-n-de-activos.pdf

For further information on DBRS’s historic default rates published by the European Securities and Markets Administration (“ESMA”) in a central repository see http://cerep.esma.europa.eu/cerep-web/statistics/defaults.xhtml.

Ratings assigned by DBRS Ratings Limited are subject to EU regulations only.

Initial Lead Analyst: David Sanchez Rodriguez
Initial Provisional Rating Date: 09/07/2013
Rating Committee Chair: Claire Mezzanotte
Lead Surveillance Analyst: Keith Gorman