Rabobank, ‘one of the world’s safest banks’ has transferred part of its mortgage portfolio into bonds as a precautionary measure against risks created by the current credit crisis, reports the Financial Times.

The mortgages concerned have a combined value of €30bn. The bank made its move in December to retain liquidity, reports the FT.
Marco Roddenhof, treasurer at Rabobank, tells the paper: ‘We acted to guard against the rising liquidity risk we see in 2008.
‘We expected the crisis in the financial system to only get worse this year and this deal acts as an additional liquidity buffer that we can use as collateral to raise funds from, for example the central bank, if necessary.’
Rabobank is the only European bank rated AAA by Standard & Poor’s.