National Commercial Bank Jamaica (NCB) has priced a $125 million privately placed credit card transaction.
Citibank led the deal and it was placed in a conduit with a five-year certificate. The $125 million reflects U.S. cash flows from the future payments of Visa and MasterCard.
Standard and Poor's has assigned a triple-A rating to the Jamaican Credit Card Merchant Voucher Receivables Master Trust, as a result of the wrap provided by XL Capital Assurance Inc. Additionally, S&P assigned an investment-grade shadow rating above NCB's single-B rating. Moody's Investors Service also provided a Baa3 rating to the trust, which does not consider the credit-enhanced wrap from XL.
While this transaction marks the first rating by Moody's and S&P for a credit card transaction out of Jamaica, NCB completed two previous cross-border, privately placed transactions in 1991 for $30 million and in 1994 for $50 million.
