Moody’s Ratings (Moody’s) announced the upgrade of Luminor Bank’s long-term senior unsecured rating to A2 from A3. In addition Moody’s assigned a rating of Baa3 to Luminor’s newly issued subordinated debt securities.

Explaining its upgrade of Luminor’s senior unsecured debt securities, Moody’s noted that the increased volume of loss-absorbing securities provided by the recent issue of subordinated debt would materially lower the loss severity to Luminor’s senior unsecured debtholders in a resolution scenario.

Moody’s also upgraded Luminor’s senior unsecured medium-term note (MTN) program rating to (P)A2 from (P)A3. The outlook on the long-term senior unsecured ratings is stable. The full list of Moody’s ratings of Luminor is shown below.

Johannes Proksch, Chief Financial Officer, said:

‘We are delighted that Moody’s has upgraded our rating to A2, which followed the announcement of our first subordinated bond issuance. Moody’s recognition of our strong capitalisation and healthy profitability shows we are positioned to deliver on our strategy and priorities for the period ahead – to improve our value proposition for our customers, to streamline our IT for the benefit of our customers – and so be more efficient – and to be compliant with changing regulatory requirements.