Four credit-card issuers are bringing more than $2 billion in new receivables securitizations to the U.S. and Canadian asset-backed markets.
Chase Bank, Discover, RBC and Alliance Data Systems Corp. – through subsidiary Comenity Bank – each received preliminary triple-A ratings for their new card-backed securitizations. The largest of the deals, Chase’s $1.1 billion Chase Issuance Trust 2016-7 through its ChaseSERIES platform, closed Monday, according to ratings agency reports.
Discover’s $500 million securitization of receivables from its branded cards and Alliance’s $314.7 million asset-backed portfolio of new private-label retail card receivables each are set to close next week, while a new cards receivables transaction of an undetermined size is being structured by Royal Bank of Canada.
Chase’s seventh ChaseSERIES trust issuance of the year is backed by receivables of credit cards issued by Chase Bank USA and its affiliates. On Monday it received its preliminary triple-A ratings from Standard & Poor’s, Fitch Ratings and Moody’s Investors Service.
The notes will carry a 1.06% interest rate, with 16.28% credit support from the unrated, subordinate Class B and C notes, according to an analysis published by S&P. The notes are unchanged from the previous ChaseSERIES issuance (2016-6), with the exception of a shorter maximum accumulation period length of 10 months for the notes (instead of the prior time line of one year), according to S&P.
The accounts in the ChaseSERIES trust are well-seasoned, with no account younger than five years of age. As of June, FICO scores greater than 72 comprised of 67% of the total trust assets, and FICO scores below 660 making up only 9.8% of the total.
According to Fitch, 34 tranches of Class A notes are now outstanding under the ChaseSERIES trust, and the total amount of notes outstanding at $37.27 billion – including $31.2 billion in Class A notes.
Discover is issuing its fourth securitization of the year through its revolving DiscoverSeries notes trust (2016-4). The $500 million in Class A notes have received preliminary triple-A ratings from Moody’s, S&P and Fitch.
The six-year notes carry 21% credit enhancement, with the interest rate to be determined.
After completion of the 2016-4 transaction, Discover will have 29 series of class A notes outstanding, according to Fitch. The total invested amount of notes outstanding will be $22.14 billion, split between $16.18 billion of Class A notes, $1.51 billion of Class B notes, $2.58 billion of Class C notes and $1.88 billion of Class D notes.
As of June 2016, Discover had an aggregate credit card portfolio of $57.1 billion, with $30.9 billion sold into the Discover Card Master Trust 1, the issuing entity. At least 94% of the trust receivables are tied to accounts that have been originated within the last five years. The average account balance in the pool was $3,085, according to Moody’s.
RBC is structuring its deal as a dual-currency notes offering of card receivables from accounts it has originated mostly within the past three years through its revolving Golden Credit trust platform (for which it is a co-owner, which is common in Canadian securitizations).
The three note structure of Golden Credit Card Trust 2016-5 includes U.S. dollar-denominated Class A senior notes with an expected maturity date of 2019, and two series of subordinate Canadian dollar notes also due 2019.
The sizes of the tranches are to be determined at closing, but the Class A notes will comprise 93.5% of the capital structure, and require 6.5% subordination.
Moody’s has issued a preliminary ‘Aaa’ structured finance rating to the Class A notes, and is not rating the Canadian bonds being issued as Class B and C notes.
Fitch and DBRS have ach assigned provisional ‘AAA’ ratings for the Class A notes as well, along with an ‘A’/‘A’ (high) ratings for the Class B and ‘BBB+’/‘BBB (high)’ for the Class C notes.
Interest rates are to be determined. Golden Trust’s issuance is the fifth of 2016.
RBC is noted for its high-credit quality borrower: 39% have FICO scores over 760, and 66.4% have FICO scores greater than 700. (Only 17.7% have scores below 660). RBC has 6.4 million zero balance accounts out of 15.7 million, with an average balance of CAN$1,224 – compared to peers like Bank of Montreal with only 1.1 million zero-balance accounts and an average account balance of $1,768.
RBC has transferred a total of approximately CAN$11.7 billion in credit card receivables into the Golden Trust aggregate pool, including CAN$1.8 billion in December 2015 which brought down the average age of the pool.
A closing date was undetermined, according to presale reports.
World Financial Network Credit Card Master Note Trust Series 2016-B is a $314.97 million, asset-backed notes offering ultimately supported by credit card receivables from Comenity Bank, a subsidiary of Alliance Data Systems. The receivables are generated from private-label credit card accounts originated for more than 100 retailers predominantly in soft goods sectors like clothing and department stores.
The capital structure is led by $250 million in senior Class A fixed interest-rate notes with credit support of 24%. The notes on Monday received preliminary triple-A structured finance ratings from S&P, Fitch Ratings and DBRS. A subordinate Class M tranche totaling $15.36 million was rated ‘AA’ by the agencies; three series of Class B,C, and D notes will not be publicly offered.
According to DBRS, there are 11 term series and one variable funding note outstanding with a total notes balance of $5.2 billion with the World Financial master trust. The closing date is September 22.
