Moody’s has withdrawn its ratings of BNP Paribas’ two covered bond programmes after the French bank requested it to do so , having decided that two ratings for each was sufficient.

On 4 April BNP Paribas announced its decision, saying that as part of a global “Simple & Efficient” programme to improve operating efficiency it would dispense with Moody’s ratings of its BNP Paribas Home Loan SFH and BNP Paribas Public Sector SCF covered bonds, retaining those of Fitch and Standard & Poor’s.

The programmes were rated Aaa by Moody’s, which said yesterday (Thursday) that it had withdrawn the ratings because it had not received adequate information to monitor them because of BNP Paribas’ decision to cease participating in the rating process.