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Irish Nationwide Building Society already has enough facilities and cash to repay €4 billion of debt maturing at the end of this month, according to a spokesman for the company.

The society's move yesterday to list €4 billion of Government-guaranteed notes under its so-called global medium- term note program "boosts the liquidity" of the society, spokesman Brian Bell said today.

Irish Nationwide "may use some of the €4 billion of notes to repay maturing bonds," said Mr Bell. He said the bonds are eligible as collateral for short-term European Central Bank funding.

Meanwhile, Allied Irish Bank and Bank of Ireland had their ratings cut to "neutral" from "outperform" at Dublin-based securities group Davy, which cited concerns over whether the government bank guarantee will be extended.