News
Standard & Poor’s reaffirms CEB’s AAA rating (stable outlook). Fitch Ratings confirms its AA+ rating and revises its outlook from ‘stable’ to ‘positive’
27 July 2021
PARIS - Standard & Poor’s and Fitch Ratings affirmed their excellent ratings for the Council of Europe Development Bank (CEB). Additionally, Fitch Ratings revised its rating outlook from ‘stable’ to ‘positive’.
In the rating report published by Standard & Poor’s (S&P) on 23 July 2021, confirming CEB’s AAA rating with a stable outlook, the highest rating possible, the following key elements were highlighted:
- the ‘aaa’ stand-alone credit profile (SACP),
- the ‘extremely strong’ enterprise and financial risk profile.
In its report, S&P maintained its ‘extremely strong’ assessment of CEB’s enterprise risk profile and financial risk profile, putting to the fore the continuing shareholder engagement and support for the Bank’s activity as well as its excellent track record of Preferred Creditor Treatment (PCT). It also highlighted CEB’s important ramp-up in Covid-19 related lending, further accentuating the Institution’s policy importance.
Consequently, CEB’s ‘SACP’ scoring obtained the highest level possible at ‘aaa’ and therefore the Bank did not require any uplift from its shareholder support assessment to reach its AAA rating.
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In its press release published on 26 July 2021, Fitch Ratings confirmed CEB’s AA+ rating and revised its outlook from ‘stable’ to ‘positive’, reflecting the following rationale:
- resilience in the Bank’s solvency,
- robust capitalisation and asset quality metrics despite the Covid-19 crisis.
In its press release, Fitch Ratings underlined CEB’s enhanced public mandate owing to the role played by the Bank in the migrant crisis and during the Covid-19 pandemic in Europe.
Furthermore, CEB’s strong capitalisation and very low risk profile, supported by the absence of non-performing loans, spotlighted CEB’s ‘aa-‘ solvency assessment. Fitch maintained the Bank’s ‘aaa’ liquidity assessment, underpinned by its excellent liquidity buffer and the strong quality of its treasury portfolio.
Set up in 1956, the CEB (Council of Europe Development Bank) has 42 member states. Twenty-two Central, Eastern and South Eastern European countries, forming the Bank's target countries, are listed among the member states. As a major instrument of the policy of solidarity in Europe, the Bank finances social projects by making available resources raised in conditions reflecting the quality of its rating (Aa1 with Moody's, outlook stable, AAA with Standard & Poor's, outlook stable, AA+ with Fitch Ratings, outlook positive and AAA* with Scope Ratings, outlook stable). It thus grants loans to its member states, and to financial institutions and local authorities in its member states for the financing of projects in the social sector, in accordance with its Articles of Agreement.
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