Linklaters advises Crédit Agricole on its new STS-labelled French public RMBS transaction

Linklaters has advised Crédit Agricole S.A. and Crédit Agricole CIB, as joint arrangers, on a new Residential Mortgage-Backed Securities (RMBS) transaction involving home loans granted by the 39 Regional Banks of Crédit Agricole Mutuel (CRCAM) to individuals in France and secured by mortgages or guarantees. The transaction is part of the Crédit Agricole group's refinancing diversification policy and is intended to raise liquidity.

The receivables from these loans are being transferred by the CRCAM, acting as sellers, to the FCT Crédit Agricole Habitat 2022-1, a securitization fund (fonds commun de titrisation) which is being financed by the issue of senior and subordinated bonds for a total nominal amount of 1.2 billion euros. The senior bonds are rated AAA(sf) by DBRS and Aaa(sf) by Moody's, listed on Euronext Paris and placed with institutional investors. The subordinated notes are underwritten by the sellers. A revolving period of 4 years and 10 months is provided for during which the CRCAMs will assign new receivables to the issuer. At the end of such period, the sellers have an option to repurchase the entire portfolio.

CA-CIB acted as sole bookrunner for the placement of the issue. CA-CIB is also involved in the securitization structure as swap counterparty, FCT account bank and of the specially dedicated account bank.

The transaction has been notified to ESMA as an STS (“Simple, Transparent and Standardized”) securitization.

Linklaters team was led by Patrice Doat, Partner, Guillaume Malaty, Senior Associate and Julien Bourgeois, Associate in Structured Finance.