Preliminary ratings were assigned to Resimac's first nonconforming residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS) of 2015, which is also the first such deal in Australia this year. The transaction – Resimac Bastille Trust Series 2015-1NC – has an indicative volume of A$300 million (US$229.4 million) across eight tranches and is backed by a mixed pool of conforming and nonconforming residential mortgages.

According to preliminary ratings reports published by Moody's Investors Service (Moody's) and Fitch Ratings (Fitch) on March 10, the transaction's class A1 and A2 notes have indicative volumes of A$210 million and A$36 million respectively and have been assigned a preliminary Aaa/AAA rating by the agencies.

The A$34.5 million class B note, A$4.5 million class C note, A$6.0 million class D note, A$3.6 million class E note and A$3.0 million class F note have been assigned Aaa, Aa2, A2, Baa2, Ba2 and B1 ratings by Moody's and will not be rated by Fitch. The final A$2.4 million class G note has not been assigned a rating by either agency.

According to the reports, at the cut-off date, the total collateral pool consisted of residential mortgages provided to 817 borrowers originated by Resimac, totalling approximately A$300 million. Credit-impaired mortgages made up 29.4 per cent of the pool, while reduced-documentation loans represented 70.1 per cent of the portfolio. In total, 25.0 per cent of the portfolio is made up of interest-only loans, with investment loans representing 29.4 per cent and owner-occupier loans making up the remainder.

According to KangaNews data, Resimac last issued a RMBS deal under its Avoca programme in November last year – a A$500 million, five-tranche transaction which saw pricing of its largest A$437 million class A1 note at 92 basis points over bank bills. The issuer most recently priced an RMBS deal under its Bastille programme in November 2013, which was a A$350 million eight tranche deal.