A low valuation for the property portfolio held by financial services group SNS Reaal before it was nationalised has been upheld by a second assessment, the Financieele Dagblad reports on Thursday.

The original Cushman & Wakefield valuation was far lower than SNS Reaal – and its accountant and supervisory authority – had assumed it would be. This low price and the failure of efforts to find private money to shore up the bank eventually led to its nationalisation.

But sources have now told the FD that American company BlackRock Solutions has ‘correctly interpreted and applied’ the valuation method. ‘BlackRock has come to the conclusion that Cushman did it in an acceptable way,’ the paper quotes a source as saying.

If problems were found with the valuation, investors who lost everything when the bank was taken over by the state, would be able to sue for compensation. BlackRock was brought in by the finance ministry to make the assessment.

Another investigation into C&W’s approach to SNS’s property is currently being undertaken by the European Commission