OREANDA-NEWS. Fitch Ratings (Thailand) has affirmed ING Bank NV's (ING Bank) THB4.26bn senior unsecured bonds due 2016 at 'AAA(tha)'. This follows the recent downgrade of ING Bank's Long-Term Foreign Currency Issuer Default Rating (IDR) to 'A'/Stable from 'A+'/Negative on 19 May 2015 (see "Fitch Takes Action on Dutch Banks on Sovereign Support Review" on www.fitchratings.com)

KEY RATING DRIVERS
The rating of the bonds is based on ING Bank's Long-Term Foreign Currency IDR of 'A', which is still higher than Thailand's Long-Term Local Currency IDR of 'A-'. Hence, the rating on the bonds remains at 'AAA(tha)', the highest rating on Thailand's National rating scale.

The downgrade of ING Bank's Long-Term Foreign Currency IDR was driven by the revision of its Support Rating Floor (SRF) to 'No Floor' from 'A+'. The action was taken in conjunction with Fitch's recent review of sovereign support for banks globally. Fitch believes legislative, regulatory and policy initiatives have substantially reduced the likelihood of sovereign support for US, Swiss and European Union commercial banks. Fitch believes that extraordinary external support, while possible, can no longer be relied upon for Dutch Banks.

As a result of the revision to the SRF, the IDR of ING Bank is now driven by its standalone creditworthiness as expressed by the Viability Rating (VR).

ING Bank's VR reflects the bank's strong franchise and diverse business model (mostly in the Benelux region), which supports resilient earnings generation, and its balanced funding profile. The VR also factors in the bank's moderate impaired loans and modest coverage ratios, which result in a higher proportion of unreserved impaired loans relative to its equity base than similarly rated peers.

ING Bank is the largest Dutch bank by total assets; it has a strong retail and commercial banking franchise in the Benelux. It also has retail banking operations outside the Benelux in a number of countries, notably through its direct banking business ING Direct, and commercial banking activities are conducted in major global financial centres.

RATING SENSITIVITIES
The 'AAA(tha)' rating on ING Bank's bonds is the highest on the national scale and, hence, no rating upside is possible.

The downgrade of the baht-denominated bond's rating is unlikely in the short-term as ING Bank's Long-Term Foreign Currency IDR is still one notch higher than Thailand's Long-Term Local Currency IDR. Moreover, the Stable Outlooks on the ratings on ING Bank and Thailand indicated that the ratings of the two entities are not expected to change in the short-term.

ING Bank's other ratings are not affected and are as follows:
Long-Term IDR: 'A'; Outlook Stable
Short-Term IDR: 'F1'
Viability Rating: 'a'
Support Rating: '5'
Support Rating Floor: 'No Floor'
Subordinated debt: 'A-'
Senior unsecured notes: 'A'/'F1'
Short-term senior unsecured notes: 'F1'
Commercial paper: 'A'/'F1'
Market linked notes (XS1144264667, XS1170271479, XS1202919806): 'A(emr)'