The Netherlands

Standard & Poor’s today (Tuesday) placed NIBC Bank’s BBB+ rating on review for possible downgrade because of weaker than expected profitability and asset quality.

Moody’s has today (Friday) downgraded from Aa2 to Aa3 bonds issued under ABN Amro’s Bouwfonds secured debt issuance programme, matching an identical cut to ABN Amro Bank’s rating last week.

Fitch yesterday (Wednesday) downgraded ING Bank from AA- to A+. The rating of the issuer’s mortgage-backed covered bonds was affirmed at AAA.

Update: NIBC Bank’s Eu7bn covered bond programme has been registered with the Dutch central bank, the issuer announced today (Thursday).

NIBC Bank is preparing minor changes to its programme to maintain its covered bonds’ AAA rating from Fitch after the agency today (Wednesday) downgraded the institution’s long term rating and placed the covered bonds on negative review. And the issuer’s covered bonds could be registered with the Dutch central bank very soon, an official at the bank told The Cover.

Netherlands-based insurance company Aegon hopes that its Aegon Bank subsidiary will be ready to issue covered bonds by the end of this year and benchmark transactions are on the agenda, an Aegon official told The Cover.

Moody’s yesterday (Thursday) downgraded the long term debt of ABN Amro Bank from Aa2 to Aa3 in a move that captures the rating agency’s expectations about the credit profile of the Dutch government-owned bank that is due to succeed the issuer after a demerger.

Aegon Bank is planning a covered bond programme, according to Fitch.

ABN Amro yesterday (Monday) priced a Eu2bn five year mortgage-backed benchmark at 98bp over mid-swaps, the tightest level this year for a jumbo issued outside of France and Germany. The issuer spoke to The Cover about the comeback transaction and the forthcoming registration of its programme.

ABN Amro will this (Monday) afternoon price its first benchmark since February 2007. The deal’s launch coincides with the official start of the European Central Bank’s Eu60bn covered bond purchase programme, and also marks the beginning of what could be a busy week in the primary market, with several other issuers understood to be lining up deals.

The deal pipeline for next week appears surprisingly thin, said syndicate officials today (Friday), but one covered bond banker suggested that it was only deceptively so.

Deutsche Bank will today (Tuesday) price its debut Pfandbrief, a Eu1bn seven year mortgage-backed deal, at the tight of guidance. The level is easily the tightest this year for a mortgage-backed benchmark.