Relief as Aktia downgrade is less than expected

Moody’s downgraded Aktia Real Estate Mortgage Bank’s (AMB) mortgage covered bonds from Aa1 to Aa3 on Friday. The move will come as a relief to bondholders who feared a downgrade to as low as A1. The rating news comes after the bank said three weeks ago that it was abandoning the specialist bank principle in favour of the universal model, resulting in a wind-down of AMB.