Spain’s Bankinter yesterday (Wednesday) obtained a rating of its cédulas hipotecarias from Standard & Poor’s to achieve a second rating of its mortgage backed covered bonds after the issuer stopped working with Fitch last year.

S&P assigned a A rating to the cédulas hipotecarias, on negative outlook. The covered bonds are also rated by Moody’s, at A3, on review for downgrade. Moody’s also rates Bankinter itself, at Ba1, on review for downgrade.

The bank had a Fitch rating of its mortgage backed covered bonds until it stopped working with the rating agency, which on 8 July last year withdrew its rating after having downgraded the cédulas hipotecarias from AA+ to AA.

The Covered Bond Report understands that the S&P rating was sought to fulfil Bankinter’s wish to have its covered bonds rated by two rating agencies.

The S&P rating incorporates a five notch uplift from an issuer rating of BB+, on negative outlook. The covered bonds are classified as a Category 1 programme under S&P’s framework, with the rating agency assessing asset-liability mismatch (ALMM) risk to be “high”. These two elements provide for a maximum uplift of five notches above the long term issuer credit rating.

A downgrade of Bankinter would, all else remaining equal, therefore automatically lead to a corresponding rating action on its covered bonds.