Credit ratings were assigned to the asset-backed floating-rate notes series 2 issued by Sestante Finance S.r.l. This is the second transaction backed by a pool of mortgage loans originated by Meliorbanca SpA and secured over residential properties in Italy. The first closed in December 2003. Rather than being a standalone transaction, Sestante Finance has been designed in two stages: A warehousing phase from May 17, 2004, to Nov. 30, 2004, during which the originator entered into a master receivable purchase agreement with the warehousing issuer. Under this agreement, the originator sold its own portfolio without recourse to Sestante W S.r.l. Sestante W financed the purchase of the first portfolio by issuing unrated residential mortgage-backed notes. During the warehousing phase, it
