News
Fitch Ratings upgrades its rating for CEB to AAA ‘stable’ outlook
18 July 2023
PARIS – Fitch Ratings upgraded today the Council of Europe Development Bank (CEB) to its highest rating, AAA stable outlook. With this decision, the CEB has now the highest rating with major credit agencies.
On 18 July 2023, Fitch ratings upgraded the CEB’s rating to AAA, with a ‘stable outlook’, after the rating agency had confirmed CEB’s AA+ rating, revising its outlook from ‘stable’ to ‘positive’, 2 years ago.
In a press release, Fitch motivated today’s decision by pointing to several drivers: the CEB’s increasing policy importance, including its role in providing support to its member countries in recent refugees crises; the strengthening of the Bank’s capitalisation, very low credit risk, resilience of its loan performance as well as its excellent liquidity.
In its review, Fitch highlighted in particular the importance of the Bank’s historic capital increase, the first-ever with paid-in resources, amounting to €1.20 billion, which will help shelter the CEB from rising credit risk in the countries in which it operates. In addition, the agency expects that the risk emanating from the operations in Ukraine will be contained.
The Bank enjoys now the highest credit ratings with all the Credit Rating Agencies that assess its profile: Moody’s (Aaa, stable outlook), Standard & Poor’s (AAA, stable outlook), Fitch (AAA, stable outlook), and Scope Ratings (AAA, stable outlook) (unsolicited rating).
The Council of Europe Development Bank (CEB) is a multilateral development bank whose unique mission is to promote social cohesion in its 43 member states across Europe. The CEB finances investment in social sectors, including education, health and affordable housing, with a focus on the needs of vulnerable people. Borrowers include governments, local and regional authorities, public and private banks, non-profit organisations and others. As a multilateral bank with an excellent credit rating, the CEB funds itself on the international capital markets. It approves projects according to strict social, environmental and governance criteria, and provides technical assistance. In addition, the CEB receives funds from donors to complement its activities.