Norway

Moody’s yesterday (Monday) downgraded Terra Boligkreditt’s covered bonds from Aaa to Aa2 and placed them on review for further downgrade.

DnB Nor is setting up a new institution to issue covered bonds backed by commercial mortgages, while DnB Nor Boligkreditt will continue to focus purely on residential mortgage-backed issuance.

Moody’s yesterday (Wednesday) downgraded SpareBank 1 Gruppen’s long term issuer rating from A3 to Baa1, and left the rating on negative outlook, a day after cutting three members of the SpareBank 1 Alliance by one notch.

Moody’s yesterday (Tuesday) downgraded three Norwegian savings banks that are members of the SpareBank 1 Alliance from Aa3 to A1.

Fitch Ratings on Friday changed from stable to negative the outlook of Sparebank 1 SMN’s and Sparebank 1 Nord-Norge’s long term A ratings and put Sparebank 1 SR Bank’s long term individual debt rating of A on negative watch.

Five medium-sized Norwegian savings banks have put in place the necessary preparations to issue covered bonds and received approval to swap these with the central bank for government securities under the country’s Nkr350bn (Eu39bn) support scheme.

Standard & Poor’s on Friday changed its outlook on DnB Nor from stable to negative on expectations that the Norwegian bank’s asset quality will deteriorate further.

Sparebanken Vest Boligkreditt today (Monday) executed its inaugural covered bond issue, but, like other Norwegian issuance in the past month, it is being retained.

In brief: Storebrand Kredittforetak has increased and retained its Nkr1.5bn May 2011 issue by Nkr2bn to further build up its unutilised holdings of covered bonds that can be used to access Norges Banks’ liquidity facility.

Norway’s Sparebanken Vest is preparing to launch its first covered bonds, having set up Sparebanken Vest Boligkreditt.

Storebrand Kredittforetak has increased its Nkr1bn April 2011 issue by Nkr500m (Eu58m), following DnB Nor Boligkreditt and Sparebank 1 Boligkreditt in building up unutilised holdings of covered bonds that it can use to access the Norges Bank liquidity facility that was announced on 12 October.

In brief: DnB Nor today (Tuesday) detailed its capacity to access the new liquidity measures announced by the Norwegian ministry of finance at the weekend.