OREANDA-NEWS. Fitch Ratings has affirmed Compartment CIF Asset 2001-1's senior units (FR0010681171) at 'AAAsf' with Stable Outlook.

CIF Assets 2001-1, created in April 2001, is a French Fonds Commun de Titrisation (FCT) used as a refinancing vehicle by Caisse Centrale du Credit Immobilier de France (3CIF; A/Stable/F1). The notes are backed by a portfolio of French residential loans originated by 10 subsidiaries of Credit Immobilier de France Developpement (CIFD; A/Stable/F1), including Banque Patrimoine et Immobilier (BPI; A/Stable/F1).

KEY RATING DRIVERS

Performance Adjustments
The lender has the option to repurchase loans for which unpaid amounts exceed three times the amount of the latest due instalment. However, these repurchases have remained limited and have not heavily distorted the delinquency figures, with loans in arrears by more than three months currently standing below 0.5% of the outstanding loan balance. The arrears buckets that are not affected by this repurchase option are the buckets corresponding to less than 90 days in arrears. The 30-to-60 day arrears bucket has remained stable around 1% of the outstanding loan balance since mid-2012, which shows that the inflow of new loans going into delinquency is low.

The originator has been more active in repurchasing loans going to defaults. As of end-June 2015, the monthly annualised repurchase rate of defaulted loan was 1.2% of the outstanding loan balance. As a result, gross cumulative defaults have stabilised since early 2010 and are below 0.9% of the total amount of asset purchased by the structure. This shows that the originator provides active support to the transaction.

Decreasing Loan-To-Value (LTV)
One of the main characteristics of the portfolio is the high original LTVs of the loans. As of end-June 2015 the weighted average original LTV stood at 94.9%. Nevertheless, through pool amortisation the weighted average indexed current LTVs has decreased to 76.9% from 82% in October 2012 (time of the last tap issue of the structure). As a result, weighted average recovery rates are showing signs of improvement.

Support from The French Government
Since November 2013 CIFD has a funding guarantee from the French state, including EUR12bn in respect of 3CIF's liabilities to CIF Euromortgage and CIF Asset 2001-1.

RATING SENSITIVITIES
CIF group entities currently hold an important role in the transaction, not only by providing support to the assets' performance but also by acting as counterparty in many different roles (swap counterparty, servicer and account provider). As a result if CIF group entities reduce their support to the structure, suffer from a rating downgrade or lower state support, this could result in negative rating actions.

DUE DILIGENCE USAGE
No third party due diligence was provided or reviewed in relation to this rating action.

DATA ADEQUACY
Fitch has checked the consistency and plausibility of the information it has received about the performance of the asset pool and the transaction. The findings were reflected in this analysis by applying the arrears roll rates to the deferred loans. Fitch has not reviewed the results of any third party assessment of the asset portfolio information.

Prior to the transaction closing, Fitch conducted a review of a small targeted sample of 3CIF's origination files and found inconsistencies or missing data related to the property appraisal value at loan origination. These findings were considered in this analysis by assuming a 3.2% recovery rate haircut in all rating scenarios.

Overall, Fitch's assessment of the information relied upon for the agency's rating analysis according to its applicable rating methodologies indicates that it is adequately reliable.

SOURCES OF INFORMATION
The information below was used in the analysis.
-Loan-by-loan data provided by 3CIF as at 30 June 2015.
-Transaction reporting provided by 3CIF as at 1 June 2015.
-Counterparty and reserve fund information provided by 3CIF as of end-August 2015.

MODELS
The models below were used in the analysis.