The Netherlands

Standard & Poor’s yesterday (Thursday) left the AAA rating of NIBC Bank’s covered bonds unchanged after the Dutch issuer found a counterparty to act as standby total return swap provider for its programme.

ING is set to price the first five year Dutch guaranteed transaction later today (Friday) after the maximum maturity under the country’s scheme was extended. Its volume also overshadows the sizes achieved by Austrian issuers that have been active in the tenor.

The financial institutions market today (Tuesday) burst into action with three guaranteed deals and one unguaranteed, after the quiet start to the week yesterday. And there is already speculation about the next mandate from Spain.

The week’s activity has started slowly today (Monday), with no concrete deals in the market, although NIBC has mandated its second government-guaranteed deal and is expected soon. Meanwhile covered bond market participants are still digesting the reopening of jumbo Pfandbriefe last week.

Fitch has updated its model for rating Dutch residential mortgage-backed transactions, and proposed changes to its methodology for German residential mortgage-backed transactions that assume sharper falls in value in the event of a forced sale.

Standard & Poor’s yesterday (Thursday) affirmed its AAA rating of Achmea Hypotheekbank’s covered bonds after the Dutch bank took remedial action necessitated by changes to the rating agency’s counterparty methodology.

ING’s release of preliminary results for the fourth quarter of 2008 prompted Moody’s and Fitch to yesterday (Wednesday) downgrade the Dutch bank’s credit rating.

The government guaranteed bank debt market was the juncture of two waves of negative sentiment in the markets this week, as downgrades hit the sovereign market and financial institutions suffered renewed pressure.

Moody’s today (Thursday) downgraded SNS Bank’s rating from A1 to A2 and changed the outlook from negative to stable.

Caixa Geral de Depósitos and LeasePlan are pricing the first government guaranteed deals from Portugal and the Netherlands, respectively, this (Friday) afternoon. However, the first guaranteed deal from Germany, for HSH Nordbank, is not expected to be rushed to market.

Achmea Hypotheekbank and NIBC have taken sufficient action to avoid having their covered bonds placed on CreditWatch negative by Standard & Poor’s, after the rating agency revised its stance on derivative counterparties.

Anyone worried about deteriorating asset quality and the state of European mortgage markets would have felt their spirits lifting during the opening panel of the European Mortgage Federation’s sixth annual conference in Brussels yesterday (Thursday). Representatives from Denmark, Poland, the Netherlands, Germany and Belgium painted a reassuring picture of the state of their country’s mortgage markets.