OREANDA-NEWS. Fitch Ratings has revised the liquidity gap & systemic risk assessment to Moderate high risk from High risk for a typical Irish residential mortgage covered bond programme with a 12-month extendible maturity or equivalent liquidity protection. Accordingly, the agency has updated the Mortgage Liquidity and Refinancing Stress Addendum, which replaces the version published on 6 July 2015.

This amendment is supported by the positive trends in Ireland's economy and the sovereign's financial conditions, an improvement in the pillar Irish banks' credit profiles, low reliance on European Central Bank's facilities and access to secured and unsecured wholesale funding. Evidence of mortgage portfolio sales in Ireland to foreign institutional investors partly mitigates the small number of available domestic Irish bank buyers.

Notably, Fitch revised Ireland's Outlook to Positive from Stable in August 2015 (see 'Fitch revises Ireland's Outlook to Positive, Affirms at 'A-'', dated 7 August 2015) and upgraded the Viability Rating of two pillar banks in Ireland to 'bb'/'bb+' from 'b'/'bb-' in May 2015 (see 'Fitch Downgrades Irish Banks' IDRs; Upgrades 3 VRs', dated 19 May 2015).