FitchRatings revises the rating of Compagnie de Financement Foncier’s obligations foncières

After having put France on negative watch on October 14, 2014, FitchRatings announced the downgrade of the sovereign credit rating from AA + to AA on December 12, 2014. This downgrade results from the analysis made by the rating agency on French budgetary efforts and economic outlook in 2015.

Pursuant to its methodology and mainly due to the fact that the downgrade of the sovereign can affect the public sector credit quality, Fitch downgraded, by one notch the ratings of many French covered bonds’ issuers on December 16, 2014. Therefore the rating agency announced that it revised the rating of Compagnie de Financement Foncier’ obligations foncières from AA + to AA with a stable outlook.

As a simple mechanical consequence of its recently amended methodology, this new rating does not call into question the safety and robustness of the business model of Compagnie de Financement Foncier, nor the quality of its asset cover pool.

The ratings given by the two other agencies S&P & Moody’s are maintained respectively at AAA and Aaa, stable outlook.