--- DOWNGRADE OF SUBORDINATED AND HYBRID DEBT RATINGS
As part of the nationalisation, the Minister of Finance announced the expropriation of all dated subordinated debt instruments and of all Tier 1 securities issued by SNS REAAL and SNS Bank. Although the expropriation decree allows bondholders to file objections against this decision within ten days of the date of the publication of the decree, Moody's considers all these expropriated securities to be in default. Given the scale of the government's capital injection relative to the expropriated securities, Moody's believes that there is little prospect for a recovery of principal or interest for these securities. As a result, the rating agency downgraded all these instruments to C respectively to C(hyb).