Moody’s ups Unicaja, Banco CEISS covered bonds
Thursday, 17 July 2014
Moody’s today (Thursday) upgraded mortgage and public sector-backed covered bonds issued by Unicaja Banco, and also upgraded mortgage-backed covered bonds issued by Banco CEISS, following rating actions on the respective issuers that followed the integration of CEISS into Unicaja.
The rating agency upgraded from Baa2 to Baa1 the Unicaja mortgage and public sector-backed covered bonds. The rating action follows Moody’s confirmation of the issuer’s senior debt and deposit ratings at Ba3, and concludes a review with direction uncertain initiated in December. Moody’s said that the confirmation reflects the resilience of the bank’s risk absorption capacity after the recent integration of Banco CEISS (Banco de Caja España de Inversiones, Salamanca y Soria).
The rating agency has set the covered bond anchor point for the two programmes at the senior unsecured/deposit rating plus zero notches. Moody’s assigns both programmes a Timely Payment Indicator (TPI) of “probable”.
Any rating action taken on the senior unsecured/deposit rating could lead to a rating action on the covered bonds. This is because with a senior unsecured/deposit rating of Ba3 and a TPI of “probable”, the covered bonds are at their highest achievable rating.
The rating agency upgraded Banco CEISS’s mortgage-backed covered bonds from Ba2 to Ba1 after it upgraded the long term debt and deposit rating of the issuer from B3 to B2 to reflect its view of an improved credit profile following restructuring undertaken by the Spanish bank is 2013. In addition, the issuer upgrade takes into account the provision of parental support, which partially offsets the rating agency’s assessment of systemic support, following the transfer of Banco CEISS capital to Unicaja Banco. The issuer upgrade lifts the covered bond anchor for Banco CEISS covered bonds, which is set at the senior unsecured/deposit rating plus zero notches. Moody’s assigns Banco CEISS covered bonds a TPI of “probable”.
With a senior unsecured/deposit rating of B2 and a TPI of “probable”, Banco CEISS covered bonds are at their highest possible rating.