Luminor announced today that Moody’s has assigned the bank a provisional (P) Aa1 rating for Mortgage Covered Bonds, which is currently the highest credit rating in the Baltic states.

Luminor CFO Jonas Eriksson says: “This is an important step in getting ready to issue covered bonds under the license that Luminor received in December, as the first bank in the region. I am very pleased that we have everything in place to start utilizing the program. It is important for Luminor, as it further broadens our financing as an independent bank, and it is a great step forward in developing the Baltic capital markets.“

Moody's Investors Service has today assigned a provisional (P)Aa1 long-term rating to the mortgage covered bonds issued by Luminor Bank AS, which are governed by the Estonian Covered Bond Act. Moody´s credit analysis considered, among other, the strong credit quality of the assets backing the covered bonds, the Estonian legal framework providing for the issuer's regulation and supervision, as well as the cover pool exposure to market risk and level of over-collateralisation.

On 19 December 2019, the European Central Bank issued a licence to Luminor to issue covered bonds following the assessment of the Estonian Financial Supervisory Authority. The legislation enabling the issuance of covered bonds under the Estonian Covered Bonds Act entered into force in Estonia in March 2019.