Greece

Moody’s yesterday (Tuesday) cut covered bonds issued by Alpha Bank, EFG Eurobank Ergasias and National Bank of Greece because it downgraded the Greek sovereign by four notches the day before.

Greece’s Alpha Bank has set up a new covered bond programme that allows for direct issuance.

Fitch downgraded three Greek mortgage covered bond programmes yesterday (Thursday), and left them on rating watch negative, due to severely impaired market funding sources for Greek assets.

Moody’s cut the ratings of the covered bond programmes of Alpha Bank and EFG Eurobank Ergasias on Friday after downgrading the issuers and seven other Greek banks because of their weakening stand-alone financial strength and worries about the country’s challenged economic prospects.

Moody’s cut the ratings of mortgage covered bonds of four Greek issuers yesterday (Thursday), and left them on review for further downgrade, after increasing the refinancing margins it uses in its analysis of Greek covered bonds.

Standard & Poor’s cut the rating of Alpha Bank’s covered bonds from AA- to A- yesterday (Wednesday) after the Greek issuer’s rating was cut from BBB to BB on Tuesday.

Standard & Poor’s yesterday (Tuesday) cut the ratings of four Greek banks after downgrading their sovereign by three notches.

Fears of losses resulting from any Greek government debt restructuring panicked markets yesterday (Tuesday) after Standard & Poor’s downgraded Greece from BBB+ to BB+, on negative outlook, making it the first member of the euro-zone to have its debt cut to junk status.

Moody’s cut the rating of mortgage covered bonds issued by National Bank of Greece from Aa1 to Aa2 yesterday (Monday) and placed them on review for further downgrade, after lowering the rating of Greece and several of its banks last week.

EFG Eurobank Ergasias has set up a second covered bond programme, which is backed by Greek residential mortgages mainly denominated in Swiss francs. Moody’s yesterday (Monday) assigned an A1 rating, on review for possible downgrade, to a first series launched off the Eu3bn programme.

Moody’s this (Friday) morning downgraded National Bank of Greece from A2 to A3, after cutting the Greek sovereign rating similarly yesterday (Thursday).

Fitch downgraded Alpha Bank, EFG Eurobank Ergasias and National Bank of Greece from BBB to BBB- on Friday and put them on Rating Watch negative. The rating actions were among several that followed the Greek sovereign being cut to BBB-.