OREANDA-NEWS. Fitch Ratings has affirmed Deutsche Postbank AG 's (DPB, A+/Negative) outstanding public sector Pfandbriefe at 'AA' with Stable Outlook. Fitch has subsequently withdrawn the ratings because the agency will no longer have sufficient information to maintain the ratings and will therefore no longer provide a rating or analytical coverage for DPB's Public Sector Pfandbriefe.

This rating action does not affect DPB's public-sector Pfandbriefe issued by Deutsche Siedlungs- und Landesrentenbank (DSL) before the latter's privatisation and secured by public sector cover assets recorded on a dedicated register (Deckungsregister B).

KEY RATING DRIVERS
The rating is based on DPB's Long-term Issuer Default Rating (IDR) of 'A+', an IDR uplift of 2 assigned to the programme and the legal minimum overcollateralisation (OC) that Fitch takes into account in its analysis. It also reflects a potential downgrade of DPB's Long-term IDR to the 'a' Viability Rating of its parent bank, Deutsche Bank.

The combination of a potential 'A' IDR and the IDR uplift of 2 results in a rating floor of 'AA-' on a probability of default basis, irrespective of the over-collateralisation (OC) available to the covered bonds.

Fitch deems this programme dormant and, in the absence of a public OC statement, relies on the legal minimum OC of 0% on a nominal basis and 2% based on the net present value. This level of OC supports recoveries above 51% in a 'AA' scenario. The Outlook is Stable as the IDR uplift more than compensates a potential downgrade of DPB's current IDR.

As of end-September 2014, DPB's EUR215m outstanding Public Sector Pfandbriefe were secured by a cover pool of EUR314m.