The Netherlands

Standard & Poor’s has revised its outlook for Fortis Bank (Nederland) from developing to positive because of greater certainty that it will be merged with the Dutch state-owned portion of ABN Amro Bank within two years.

Fitch on 22 December downgraded SNS Bank’s long term issuer rating from A to A- and placed it on rating watch negative because of the bank’s large exposure to stressed property finance sectors, and US and Spanish real estate markets in particular. The issuer has to take remedial action with respect to its covered bond programme because of the downgrade.

Fitch has affirmed ING Bank’s mortgage-backed covered bonds at AAA after the issuer amended its programme to provide for a “supplemental liquidity reserve amount”.

Standard & Poor’s downgraded SNS Bank from A to A- on Friday because it expects the profitability of the Dutch bank to remain relatively weak.

From EuroWeek: Delta Lloyd reopened the Dutch mortgage securitisation market this week with the successful placement of its Eu904.5m Arena 2009-1 issue. ABN Amro and Fortis also announced they will be redeeming residential mortgage securitisations they had previously declined to call at their step-up dates.

Moody’s has revised its approach to modelling set-off risk in relation to residential mortgages in Dutch covered bond programmes, which may affect the rating of one programme that is already on review for downgrade, the agency announced today (Monday).

Westdeutsche Immobilienbank has wrapped up a Eu500m three and a half year issue this (Monday) morning and Ibercaja is soft-sounding for a similarly sized five year deal.

EBS Mortgage Finance and OP Mortgage Bank are sounding out investors today (Wednesday) for what are said to be three and five year deals, respectively. Fortis Bank Nederland’s planned debut is also being discussed.

Achmea Hypotheekbank has told Moody’s that it plans to implement enhancements to its mortgage covered bond programme by April 2010 and will present its proposed changes to the rating agency within six weeks.

Moody’s yesterday (Thursday) placed SNS Bank’s long term rating on review for possible downgrade. It affirmed NIBC’s ratings, but revised the outlook on Fortis Bank Nederland’s rating from positive to negative.

SNS Bank told The Cover that it was unfazed by DSB Bank’s failure and Eurohypo’s wider than expected pricing on Monday when it launched its first benchmark covered bond yesterday (Tuesday), a Eu1bn six year deal executed around two years after its programme was established.

SNS Bank has closed the books for its debut benchmark covered bond having attracted around Eu1.5bn of orders for a six year issue. The deal will be priced in the middle of guidance this (Tuesday) afternoon, but the final size had yet to be confirmed by the time The Cover went to press.