Announcement triggered by the change of outlook on the issuer rating of the government of the Netherlands
Paris, July 25, 2012 -- Moody's Investors Service has today changed the outlook to negative
from stable on the debt instruments that are issued by Dutch banks and
which benefit from an unconditional and irrevocable guarantee of the Kingdom
of the Netherlands. This rating action reflects the change to negative
from stable of the outlook on the ratings of the government of the Netherlands,
announced on 23 July 2012. For more details, please refer
to Moody's PR http://www.moodys.com/research/Moodys-changes-the-outlook-to-negative-on-Germany-Netherlands-Luxembourg--PR_251214.
Today's rating announcement affects all debt instruments issued
by Dutch banking institutions under the Credit Guarantee Scheme set up
by the Dutch authorities on 23 October 2008, which benefit from
a guarantee from the Kingdom of the Netherlands.
Moody's says that the other ratings and outlooks for Dutch financial
institutions are unaffected by today's rating announcement.
For additional information on bank ratings, please refer to the
webpage containing Moody's related announcements http://www.moodys.com/eusovereign
.
RATINGS RATIONALE
DEBT GUARANTEED BY THE KINGDOM OF THE NETHERLANDS AFFECTED BY TODAY'S
ANNOUNCEMENT
In late 2008, the Dutch Ministry of Finance and the Dutch Central
Bank announced measures aiming to restore stability and confidence in
the Dutch financial and banking systems. As part of these measures,
the Dutch authorities announced the formation of a Credit Guarantee Scheme
of up to EUR200 billion operated by the Dutch State Treasury Agency,
under which the covered instruments would benefit from the guarantee of
the Kingdom of the Netherlands. Please refer to Moody's comments
on the Dutch Government's support to financial institutions in the Netherlands,
published on 28 October 2008.
Upon issuance, these instruments were assigned backed ratings of
Aaa with a stable outlook or Prime-1, reflecting (i) Moody's
assessment of the strength of the guarantee in place; and (ii) Moody's
expectation that the guarantor would pay any claim in a timely manner.
For more details, please refer to the press release "Moody's
to assign backed Aaa ratings to eligible banks' new debt securities covered
by Dutch guarantee", published on 3 December 2008.
Today's change in outlook on the government guaranteed debt instruments
issued by some Dutch banks mirrors the change in outlook on the rating
of the government of the Netherlands, announced on 23 July 2012.
The outlook was changed to negative from stable on the Aaa backed ratings
of government guaranteed debts of the following issuers: Achmea
Hypotheekbank, ING Bank N.V., Fortis Bank Nederland
(Holding) N.V. (now under ABN AMRO Bank N.V.),
LeasePlan Corporation N.V., NIBC Bank N.V.
and SNS Bank N.V..
WHAT COULD CHANGE THE RATING UP/DOWN
Debt instruments affected by today's announcement are rated Aaa.
Downwards pressure on the ratings could develop following deterioration
of the guarantor's credit strength. As such, any downgrades
of the ratings of the government of the Netherlands would trigger a similar
action on the ratings of the debt instruments issued under the Dutch Credit
Guarantee Scheme.
The principal methodology used in these ratings was Moody's Consolidated
Global Bank Rating Methodology published in June 2012. Please see
the Credit Policy page on www.moodys.com for a copy of this
methodology.
REGULATORY DISCLOSURES
For ratings issued on a program, series or category/class of debt,
this announcement provides relevant regulatory disclosures in relation
to each rating of a subsequently issued bond or note of the same series
or category/class of debt or pursuant to a program for which the ratings
are derived exclusively from existing ratings in accordance with Moody's
rating practices. For ratings issued on a support provider,
this announcement provides relevant regulatory disclosures in relation
to the rating action on the support provider and in relation to each particular
rating action for securities that derive their credit ratings from the
support provider's credit rating. For provisional ratings,
this announcement provides relevant regulatory disclosures in relation
to the provisional rating assigned, and in relation to a definitive
rating that may be assigned subsequent to the final issuance of the debt,
in each case where the transaction structure and terms have not changed
prior to the assignment of the definitive rating in a manner that would
have affected the rating. For further information please see the
ratings tab on the issuer/entity page for the respective issuer on www.moodys.com.
The ratings have been disclosed to the rated entities or their designated
agents and issued with no amendment resulting from that disclosure.
Information sources used to prepare the ratings are the following :
parties involved in the ratings, public information, and confidential
and proprietary Moody's Investors Service information.
Moody's considers the quality of information available on the rated
entities, obligations or credits satisfactory for the purposes of
issuing these ratings.
Moody's adopts all necessary measures so that the information it
uses in assigning the ratings is of sufficient quality and from sources
Moody's considers to be reliable including, when appropriate,
independent third-party sources. However, Moody's
is not an auditor and cannot in every instance independently verify or
validate information received in the rating process.
Moody's Investors Service may have provided Ancillary or Other Permissible
Service(s) to the rated entities or their related third parties within
the two years preceding the credit rating action. Please see the
special report "Ancillary or other permissible services provided
to entities rated by MIS's EU credit rating agencies" on the
ratings disclosure page on our website www.moodys.com for
further information.
Please see the ratings disclosure page on www.moodys.com
for general disclosure on potential conflicts of interests.
Please see the ratings disclosure page on www.moodys.com
for information on (A) MCO's major shareholders (above 5%)
and for (B) further information regarding certain affiliations that may
exist between directors of MCO and rated entities as well as (C) the names
of entities that hold ratings from MIS that have also publicly reported
to the SEC an ownership interest in MCO of more than 5%.
A member of the board of directors of this rated entity may also be a
member of the board of directors of a shareholder of Moody's Corporation;
however, Moody's has not independently verified this matter.
Please see Moody's Rating Symbols and Definitions on the Rating
Process page on www.moodys.com for further information on
the meaning of each rating category and the definition of default and
recovery.
Please see for each issuer the ratings tab on the issuer/entity page on
www.moodys.com for the last rating action and the rating
history. The date on which some ratings were first released goes
back to a time before Moody's ratings were fully digitized and accurate
data may not be available. Consequently, Moody's provides
a date that it believes is the most reliable and accurate based on the
information that is available to it. Please see the ratings disclosure
page on our website www.moodys.com for further information.
The below contact information is provided for information purposes only.
Please see the issuer page on www.moodys.com for Moody's
regulatory disclosure of the name of the lead analyst and the office that
has issued the credit rating.
The relevant Releasing Office for each rating is identified under the
Debt/Tranche List section on the Ratings tab of each issuer/entity page
on moodys.com.
Stephane Herndl
Analyst
Financial Institutions Group
Moody's France SAS
96 Boulevard Haussmann
Paris 75008
France
JOURNALISTS: 44 20 7772 5456
SUBSCRIBERS: 44 20 7772 5454
Carola?Schuler
MD - Banking
Financial Institutions Group
JOURNALISTS: 44 20 7772 5456
SUBSCRIBERS: 44 20 7772 5454
Releasing Office:
Moody's France SAS
96 Boulevard Haussmann
Paris 75008
France
JOURNALISTS: 44 20 7772 5456
SUBSCRIBERS: 44 20 7772 5454
Moody's changes outlook to negative from stable on bank debt guaranteed by the Netherlands
