Moody’s upgraded eight Portuguese covered bond programmes on Friday after assigning Counterparty Risk (CR) assessments to their issuers and with the resulting new covered bond anchors for the programmes being higher than the previous ones.

The covered bond anchor for Moody’s Portuguese covered bond ratings is the CR assessment plus one notch.

Banco Santander Totta mortgage covered bonds were upgraded from A3 to A1 following the assignment of a Baa3 CR, those of BANIF from Baa3 to Baa2 with a B3 CR, and those of Caixa Económica Montepio Geral from Ba1 to Baa1 with a Ba3 CR.

Public sector covered bonds of Banco BPI were upgraded from Baa3 to Baa1 and its mortgage covered bonds from Baa2 to A3 after the assignment of a Ba2 CR. Banco Comercial Português’s mortgage covered bonds were upgraded from Ba1 to Baa1, and those of its Banco de Investimento Imobiliário subsidiary from Baa1 to A2 upon the assignment of Ba3 CRs.

Caixa Geral de Depósitos obrigações hipotecárias were upgraded from Baa2 to A3 after a CR of Ba2 was assigned. The covered bond upgrade came after Caixa Geral’s senior unsecured debt was downgraded from Ba3 to B1, on negative outlook, on Thursday as Moody’s concluded a review of six Portuguese banks’ ratings, which also saw the senior unsecured rating of Caixa Económica Montepio Geral upped from B2 to B1, on stable outlook, and others corresponding ratings affirmed on stable outlook.