The AM Securitised Traded Policies Trust No 1 has been downgraded by ratings house Standard and Poor’s (S&P), following the recent lowering of AMP Life’s counterparty credit rating to AA-/Negative from AA/Negative.
According to S&P, the downgrading of the trust, from AA to – AA, is a direct response to the ratings demotion of AMP Life’s securitised endowment policies, which have fallen victim to the funds management giant’s recent share market woes.
“The trust is transaction dependent and reliant on receiving cash flows from maturing policies issued by AMP,” a Standard and Poor’s spokesperson says.
The AM trust closed late March after its launch a month earlier. Cash flows from more than 8000 endowment policies were repackaged to create three unit classes; A1, A2 and B. At the time, the class A1 units were given a double A rating based on the predetermined payments from the providers of the insurance policies, AMP Life and MLC Lifetime.
The trusts assets are predominately a portfolio of selected endowment policies, 97 per cent of which is superannuation, which have been converted in the secondary market from whole of life insurance policies.
