Standard&Poor's Ratings Services has assigned credit ratings to the €309.2 million asset-backed floating-rate notes series 5 issued by Sestante Finance S.r.l., a mortgage transaction backed by a pool of mortgage loans secured over residential properties located in Italy. At the same time, Sestante Finance S.r.l. issued €16.28 million unrated notes. The originator in this transaction is Meliorbanca SpA, a mid-size bank listed on the Italian Stock exchange whose main shareholders are two Italian popular banks, Banco Popolare Emilia Romagna and Banco Popolare. Meliorbanca started its mortgage lending business in June 2002 with the signing of an exclusivity agreement with Divisione Mutui (renamed Systema SpA), a network of agents that since then has distributed Meliorbanca's products. The originator was
