Car Insurance

Standard & Poor’s today assigned its triple-’A’ ratings to Oracle Epsilon Funding’s JPY6.2 billion floating-rate and JPY15.6 billion fixed-rate notes. The notes are ultimately backed by a pool of auto loan receivables originated by Orient Corp. (Orico).

Standard & Poor’s ratings address the timely payment of interest and full payment of principal by the legal final maturity date of February 2007.

The notes are secured by JPY21.8 billion in fixed-rate bonds issued by Orico Maple Funding (OMF). The bonds, in turn, are secured by a senior beneficial interest in a trust created with Sakura Trust & Banking Co. Ltd. from a pool of auto loan receivables originated by Orico. Orico has entrusted an aggregate amount of about JPY25 billion of auto loans to the trust and has also purchased a subordinated beneficial interest of roughly JPY3.2 billion issued by the trust.

The ratings are based on:

– Overcollateralization of approximately JPY3.2 billion, or 12.8% of the
securitized pool;

– A reserve account to be funded at closing with about JPY340 million;

– A relatively high level of excess spread that is expected to continue over
the life of the transaction, and can be used to redeem part of the principal of
the senior certificates equivalent to the amount of defaulted auto loans;

– The status of Oracle Epsilon and OMF as special-purpose, bankruptcy-remote
entities; and

– The existence of a swap agreement that will be contracted with an ‘AAA’
rated swap counterparty to mitigate any mismatch in interest rates between the
notes and the underlying receivables.