Moody's lowered ratings of Swedish banks

The major Swedish banks Nordea and Handelsbanken have had their ratings downgraded one level of the rating agency Moody's. The announcement came an hour after midnight on Friday.
On the other hand, the two other big Swedish banks, SEB and Swedbank got their ratings affirmed. Worse luck for Landshypotek, whose mission is to finance investments in agriculture and forestry, which had its rating lowered two degrees.

According to financial analyst Peter Malmqvist a downgrading of the rating by Moody's means, in theory, it becomes more expensive for banks to borrow money.
The theory is based on thr assumption that everybody around the banks believe in the downgrade. Normally, Moody's and Standard & Poor's are very important in banking because their ratings guide the placement of money. But the rating agencies do not act very reassuring right now.