BankNordik P/F - Company Announcement

Moody's puts ratings under review

Moody's Investor Service today announced that they today placed under review
for possible downgrade the following ratings of BankNordik P/F: Baa2 long-term
and Prime -2 short-term deposit ratings, as well as the D+ bank financial
strength rating (BFSR), which maps to Baa3 on the long-term scale. 

The review for possible downgrade was triggered by the bank's acquisition of
branches of Amagerbanken A/S (Ca/NP/E, stable) from Finansiel Stabilitet. If
regulatory approval is given, the acquisition would increase BankNordik's loan
book and deposit base by almost 55% and 63%, respectively. The transaction
would also increase BankNordik's deposit-to-loan ratio to around 110%, although
the bank has indicated that it will reduce the solvency ratio from 17%
currently to around 13%. 

Moody's recognises the potential long-term strategic benefits for BankNordik in
expanding from its leading but narrow geographic focus in the Faroe Islands
towards a more diversified franchise in Denmark. Moody's will also asses the
ability of the bank to integrate the new branches while keeping costs under
control. "We recognise that Moody's has a standard process of reviewing issuers in
connection with important strategic moves. Our acquisition of the healthy parts
of Amagerbanken is clearly an important and significant strategic move for
BankNordik, which improves our geographical risk diversification and our
liquidity position. Our deposits are now 10% higher than our loans making
BankNordik's liquidity position independent from external funding loans", says
Janus Petersen, CEO of BankNordik. "It comes as no surprise for us that Moody's
is interested in receiving more detailed information about the acquisition in
order to review BankNordik's current ratings. As in connection with our
acquisition of the 12 bank branches from Sparbank last year we will put our
best efforts in providing the required information to Moody's."


         Further information: Janus Petersen, CEO, tel +298 330 340