TEXT-Fitch on Polish covered bond programs

(The following statement was released by the rating agency)

Sept 14 - Fitch Ratings has assigned BRE Bank Hipoteczny SA's (BBH; 'A'/Stable/'F1') mortgage and public sector covered bonds and Pekao Bank Hipoteczny SA's (PBH; 'A-'/Stable/'F2') mortgage covered bonds a Stable Outlook following the publication of the agency's updated Covered Bonds Rating Criteria. The Stable Outlooks assigned to the ratings of the covered bond programmes are because the related sovereign and issuer IDRs are on Stable Outlook. Also, for these programmes, Fitch's expectation is that both the asset performance and overcollateralisation maintenance will be stable. For Polish programmes, the agency has assigned Discontinuity Caps (D-caps) of 0 (full discontinuity) to each programme but has not assigned risk assessments of the D-Cap components. This is due to the current lack of detailed information that the agency has received to assess the individual D-Cap components (asset segregation, liquidity gap and systemic risk, alternative management (systemic and cover pool-specific) and privileged derivatives). For all of Fitch's Eurozone Crisis commentary go to here (Caryn Trokie, New York Ratings Unit)