OREANDA-NEWS. Fitch Ratings says that structured finance (SF) transactions in Australia and New Zealand remained stable in 4Q15 with a total of 188 tranches from 65 transactions affirmed as a result of continued stable and strong asset performance. Of these, six ratings from one transaction were withdrawn following a restructure. Two tranches from an RMBS transaction were downgraded during the quarter.

The strong asset performance reflected the local economic environment. Both the Australian and New Zealand housing markets remained strong and property price appreciation has been significant over the past couple of years. Stable interest rates have also helped to reduce volatility in mortgage performance.

Two notes from Interstar Millennium Series 2005-3E Trust (Class A2, AB) were downgraded in December 2015 as remedial action following the downgrade of the currency swap provider, The Royal Bank of Scotland PLC (BBB+/Stable/F2) was not in line with current Fitch criteria.

The ratings on six Bluestone Mortgages Warehouse Trust tranches were affirmed and simultaneously withdrawn due to a restructure of the facility. Final ratings were assigned to the notes issued from the new structure.

The ratings of all notes issued from the credit card transaction Q Card Trust were confirmed in November 2015 following a tap issuance of NZD50m.

All of the rating affirmations in 4Q15 were for Australian transactions. Prime RMBS ratings (97 - including the six ratings simultaneously withdrawn) and auto ABS (91) accounted for most of the affirmations. Three ratings from Flexi ABS Trust 2014-1 are currently assigned Positive Outlooks. The outlooks on all other SF ratings in Australia and New Zealand are Stable.

The transactions reviewed during the quarter made up approximately 34% of the 190 Fitch publicly rated Australian and New Zealand SF transactions outstanding at end-3Q15.