Strong capitalization. Clear strategic focus and long-standing sector expertise. Continued increase in retail deposit base. Moderate scale of franchise. Elevated--albeit decreasing--reliance on wholesale funding. Despite improvements, track record of volatile profitability. Standard&Poor's Ratings Services' outlook on Dutch NIBC Bank N.V. is negative, reflecting the possibility that we may lower the ratings on NIBC if the economic environment in its main markets does not stabilize as we expect next year. This could in turn impact our assessment of the bank's risk position or our risk-adjusted capital (RAC) expectations. We could lower the ratings if we saw a material deterioration in the bank's hitherto resilient asset quality, or if a weaker economic backdrop led us to revise our forecast for
