OREANDA-NEWS. Fitch Ratings says there is no rating impact on Mercurio Mortgage Finance S.r.l. Series 2012-7 (Class A (ISIN IT0004791981) AA+sf/Stable) from a partial portfolio repurchase. The prime Italian RMBS transaction is backed by residential mortgage loans originated and serviced by the Italian branch of Barclays Bank Plc (Barclays, A/Stable/F1).

On 12 January 2015, Barclays entered into a partial repurchase agreement with Mercurio Mortgage Finance whereby it repurchased EUR791,054,580 of loans, equal to 11.5% of the pool balance as of December 2014, as allowed by the transaction documentation. The proceeds of the buyback will be distributed to the senior noteholders on the next interest payment date (28 January 2015). Fitch has estimated that the credit support available to the class A notes will increase by approximately 2.6 pp to 21.7% as a result of the repurchase.

Fitch has reviewed the repurchase agreement and received a detailed list of the repurchased loans, which are all performing and bearing a floating rate. The agency has assessed the effect of the repurchase and concluded that the overall portfolio characteristics driving its default and recovery assumptions have remained unchanged, hence there are no implications for the creditworthiness of the rated notes.