DBRS Morningstar Assigns AAA (sf) Rating to the Class A Notes of Wilmington Cards 2021-1 Plc

DBRS Ratings Limited (DBRS Morningstar) assigned a AAA (sf) rating to the Class A Notes (collectively with the unrated Class D Notes, the Notes) issued by Wilmington Cards 2021-1 plc (the Issuer).

The rating addresses the timely payment of scheduled interest and the ultimate repayment of principal by the legal final maturity date.

The transaction is a securitisation of credit card receivables granted to individuals in England, Wales, and Scotland and serviced by MBNA Limited (the originator).

The rating is based on the following analytical considerations:
-- The transaction’s capital structure, including form and sufficiency of available credit enhancement to support DBRS Morningstar’s expectation of charge-off, principal payment and yield rates under various stress scenarios.
-- The ability of the transaction to withstand stressed cash flow assumptions and repay the Class A Notes.
-- The originator’s financial strength and its capabilities with respect to origination and underwriting.
-- An operational risk review of the originator, which DBRS Morningstar deems to be an acceptable servicer.
-- The transaction parties’ financial strength regarding their respective roles.
-- The credit quality, diversification, and historical and projected performance of the securitised portfolio.
-- DBRS Morningstar’s sovereign rating of the United Kingdom at AA (high) with a Stable trend.
-- The consistency of the transaction’s legal structure with DBRS Morningstar’s “Legal Criteria for European Structured Finance Transactions” methodology.

TRANSACTION STRUCTURE
The transaction incorporates separate interest and principal waterfalls during the revolving and rapid amortisation periods that allocate the available funds including reserve funds and collections of interest, principal, and recoveries from receivables.

The Class A Notes have a 60-month scheduled revolving period until the Class A scheduled redemption date. During this period, additional receivables may be purchased by the Issuer, provided that the eligibility criteria and portfolio conditions set out in the transaction documents are satisfied. The revolving period may end earlier than scheduled if certain events occur, such as the breach of performance triggers or servicer termination.

The transaction also includes a liquidity reserve that is available to cover the shortfalls in senior expenses and interests on the Class A Notes after the re-allocation of principal collections. The liquidity reserve is amortising to a target 1% of Class A notes balance, subject to a floor amount of GBP 250,000 .

COUNTERPARTIES
Bank of Scotland is the issuer account bank for the transaction. Based on DBRS Morningstar’s rating of Bank of Scotland and the downgrade provisions outlined in the transaction documents, DBRS Morningstar considers the risk arising from the exposure to the issuer account bank to be commensurate with the rating assigned.

PORTFOLIO ASSUMPTIONS AND CORONAVIRUS DISEASE (COVID-19) CONSIDERATIONS
The Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) and the resulting isolation measures have caused an economic contraction, leading to increases in unemployment rates and adverse financial impact on many borrowers. DBRS Morningstar anticipates that delinquencies could continue to rise, and payment and yield rates could remain subdued for many credit card portfolios. The rating is based on additional analysis and adjustments to expected performance as a result of the global efforts to contain the spread of the coronavirus.

After removing the interest collections, the estimated monthly principal payment rates (MPPRs) for the portfolio is approximately 10.7% between the March 2019 and March 2020. The MPPR declined to a historical low of 8.5% in May 2020 before recovering to 8.9% by August 2020. Based on the analysis of historical data trend, macroeconomic factors, and the coronavirus-related adjustments to expected performance, DBRS Morningstar set the expected MPPR at 9.0%.

The total portfolio yield has been very stable for the portfolio, largely driven by the heavy reliance of balance transfer and money transfer. Based on the analysis of historical data, DBRS Morningstar set the expected yield at 8.5%.

The reported historical charge-off rates have also been relatively stable with an average of 3.7% between the March 2019 and August 2020. Based on the analysis of historical data, macroeconomic factors, and the coronavirus-related adjustments to expected performance, DBRS Morningstar set the expected charge-off rate at 5.5%.

DBRS Morningstar analysed the transaction structure in Intex DealMaker.

On 16 April 2020, the DBRS Morningstar Sovereign group released a set of macroeconomic scenarios for the 2020-22 period in select economies. These scenarios were last updated on 28 January 2021. For details, see the following commentaries: https://www.dbrsmorningstar.com/research/372842/global-macroeconomic-scenarios-january-2021-update and https://www.dbrsmorningstar.com/research/359903/global-macroeconomic-scenarios-application-to-credit-ratings. DBRS Morningstar’s analysis considered impacts consistent with the moderate scenario in the referenced reports.

On 8 May 2020, DBRS Morningstar published a commentary outlining how the coronavirus crisis is likely to affect the DBRS Morningstar-rated ABS transactions in Europe. For more details, please see the following commentaries: https://www.dbrsmorningstar.com/research/360734/european-abs-transactions-risk-exposure-to-coronavirus-covid-19-effect and https://www.dbrsmorningstar.com/research/362712/european-structured-finance-covid-19-credit-risk-exposure-roadmap.

For more information regarding rating methodologies and Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19), please see the following DBRS Morningstar press release: https://www.dbrsmorningstar.com/research/357883.

For more information regarding structured finance rating methodologies and Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19), please see the following DBRS Morningstar press release: https://www.dbrsmorningstar.com/research/358308.

For more information regarding the structured finance rating approach and Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19), please see the following DBRS Morningstar press release: https://www.dbrsmorningstar.com/research/359905.

ESG CONSIDERATIONS
A description of how DBRS Morningstar considers ESG factors within the DBRS Morningstar analytical framework can be found in the DBRS Morningstar Criteria: Approach to Environmental, Social, and Governance Risk Factors in Credit Ratings at https://www.dbrsmorningstar.com/research/373262.

Notes:
All figures are in British pound sterling unless otherwise noted.

The principal methodology applicable to the rating is: “Rating European Consumer and Commercial Asset-Backed Securitisations” (3 September 2020).

DBRS Morningstar has applied the principal methodology consistently and conducted a review of the transactions in accordance with the principal methodology.

An asset and a cash flow analysis were both conducted.

Other methodologies referenced in these transactions are listed at the end of this press release. These may be found at: http://www.dbrsmorningstar.com/about/methodologies.

For a more detailed discussion of the sovereign risk impact on Structured Finance ratings, please refer to “Appendix C: The Impact of Sovereign Ratings on Other DBRS Morningstar Credit Ratings” of the “Global Methodology for Rating Sovereign Governments” methodology at: https://www.dbrsmorningstar.com/research/364527/global-methodology-for-rating-sovereign-governments.

The sources of data and information used for this rating include the following data provided by the arranger, Lloyds Bank Corporate Markets Plc:
-- Dynamic origination, receivables balances, payment rates, purchase rates, delinquencies, charge-off rates, yield rates and recoveries from March 2019 to August 2020; and
-- A pool cut of the portfolio as at 31 December 2020.

DBRS Morningstar did not rely upon third-party due diligence in order to conduct its analysis.

DBRS Morningstar was supplied with third-party assessments. However, this did not impact the rating analysis.

DBRS Morningstar considers the data and information available to it for the purposes of providing this rating to be of satisfactory quality.

DBRS Morningstar does not audit or independently verify the data or information it receives in connection with the rating process.

This rating concerns a newly issued financial instrument. This is the first DBRS Morningstar rating on this financial instrument.

Information regarding DBRS Morningstar ratings, including definitions, policies, and methodologies, is available on www.dbrsmorningstar.com.

To assess the impact of changing the transaction parameters on the rating, DBRS Morningstar considered the following stress scenarios, as compared to the parameters used to determine the rating:

-- Expected Yield Rate of 8.5%
-- Expected MPPR of 9.0%
-- Expected Charge-Off Rate of 5.5%

Scenario 1: a 25% decrease in the Expected Yield Rate
Scenario 2: a 25% decrease in the Expected MPPR
Scenario 3: a 25% increase in the Expected Charge-Off Rate
Scenario 4: a 15% decrease in the Expected Yield Rate, 15% decrease in the Expected MPPR and 15% increase in the Expected Charge-Off Rate.

DBRS Morningstar concludes that the expected ratings under the four stress scenarios are:
-- Class A Notes: AA (high) (sf), AA (sf), AA (high) (sf), and AA (low) (sf)

For further information on DBRS Morningstar historical default rates published by the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) in a central repository, see: http://cerep.esma.europa.eu/cerep-web/statistics/defaults.xhtml.

DBRS Morningstar understands further information on DBRS Morningstar historical default rates may be published by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) on its webpage: https://www.fca.org.uk/firms/credit-rating-agencies.

This rating is endorsed by DBRS Ratings GmbH for use in the European Union.

Lead Analyst: Kevin Chiang, Senior Vice President
Rating Committee Chair: Christian Aufsatz, Managing Director
Initial Rating Date: 12 March 2021

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The rating methodologies used in the analysis of this transaction can be found at: https://www.dbrsmorningstar.com/about/methodologies.

-- Rating European Consumer and Commercial Asset-Backed Securitisations (3 September 2020),
https://www.dbrsmorningstar.com/research/366294/rating-european-consumer-and-commercial-asset-backed-securitisations.
-- Rating European Structured Finance Transactions Methodology (21 July 2020),
https://www.dbrsmorningstar.com/research/364305/rating-european-structured-finance-transactions-methodology.
-- Legal Criteria for European Structured Finance Transactions (11 September 2019),
https://www.dbrsmorningstar.com/research/350234/legal-criteria-for-european-structured-finance-transactions.
-- Operational Risk Assessment for European Structured Finance Originators (30 September 2020), https://www.dbrsmorningstar.com/research/357430/operational-risk-assessment-for-european-structured-finance-originators.
-- Operational Risk Assessment for European Structured Finance Servicers (19 November 2020), https://www.dbrsmorningstar.com/research/357429/operational-risk-assessment-for-european-structured-finance-servicers.
-- Interest Rate Stresses for European Structured Finance Transactions (28 September 2020),
https://www.dbrsmorningstar.com/research/367292/interest-rate-stresses-for-european-structured-finance-transactions.
-- DBRS Morningstar Criteria: Approach to Environmental, Social, and Governance Risk Factors in Credit Ratings (3 February 2021), https://www.dbrsmorningstar.com/research/373262/dbrs-morningstar-criteria-approach-to-environmental-social-and-governance-risk-factors-in-credit-ratings.

A description of how DBRS Morningstar analyses structured finance transactions and how the methodologies are collectively applied can be found at: https://www.dbrsmorningstar.com/research/278375.

For more information on this credit or on this industry, visit www.dbrsmorningstar.com or contact us at info@dbrsmorningstar.com.