OREANDA-NEWS. March 19, 2015. Fitch Ratings has updated its rating criteria for Portuguese and Spanish utility credit rights securitisations. The report replaces the criteria titled 'Rating Criteria for Portuguese and Spanish Electricity Tariff Deficit Securitisations', dated 15 May 2014.

The main change to the criteria is its wider scope, as it now applies to other utility sectors apart from electricity and to other forms of regulated utility credit rights different from tariff deficits. For example, securitisation of regulated compensation credit rights or specific surcharges of utility bills in sectors such as gas or water are also analysed with this updated criteria.

The criteria report now includes a brief description of how Fitch assesses volumetric and price volatility risk in utility credit rights securitisations. Because the same building blocks that were defined in the prior version of the criteria are fully maintained, no rating actions are anticipated due to this update.

The updated criteria report is available at www.fitchratings.com and describes Fitch's methodology for analysing structured finance notes backed by utility credit rights in Portugal and Spain.