Standard & Poor’s cut WestImmo’s public sector covered bond programme from A to BBB- on Tuesday and then withdrew the ratings at the issuer’s request.

The downgrade was prompted by S&P observing lower collateralisation in the Westdeutsche Immobilienbank public sector Pfandbrief programme and increased asset-liability mismatch risk, according to the rating agency.

WestImmo was a subsidiary of the now defunct WestLB, and is 100% owned by Germany’s wind-up agency Erste Abwicklungsanstalt (EEA) after it was spun off by Portigon AG, which took over WestLB, in the autumn.