Moody’s withdrew an A3 rating of ship covered bonds issued by DVB Bank on Friday after the issuer decided to end its relationship with the rating agency in July because Moody’s rating of the bank lower than other rating agencies was “difficult to understand”.

Moody’s said that at the time of the withdrawal of the Schiffspfandbrief rating the expected loss analysis on the ship covered bonds was consistent with the A3 rating, and that the covered bonds were rated one notch above the issuer as is standard for ship covered bond programmes under Moody’s methodology.

DVB ended its rating contract with Moody’s in July, saying that Moody’s rating of the issuer was substantially different from other rating agencies’, after it was lowered by three notches to Baa1 in June.

“The gap of three rating notches between the S&P and Fitch ratings (A+ level) and the current Moody’s rating (Baa1 level) is hard to justify and difficult to understand for all participants in the financial and in the transportation markets,” said Wolfgang Driese, DVB chief executive and chairman of the board of managing directors. “This might cause misconceptions about DVB which we need to avert.”

When it announced the termination of the rating contract, DVB said it assumed that Moody’s would withdraw all ratings. The bank said that the remaining two rating agencies would be sufficient for investors.