Rating agency Fitch maintained Anglo Irish Bank on rating watch negative, saying it continues to believe that Irish authorities are "likely to avoid a default or coercive burden-sharing" for the lender's senior unsecured, unguaranteed creditors.
A potential restructuring of the government's promissory notes to the lender "would have significant implications for Anglo's financial position," Fitch said, as the notes are "by far the largest asset on its balance sheet."
Minister for Finance Michael Noonan has said he would like to restructure the €31 billion of promissory notes in Anglo Irish and Irish Nationwide Building Society to lower the cost of the notes on the State.
Mr Noonan has indicated that the Government will not impose losses on Anglo Irish Bank's senior unsecured unguaranteed bondholders.
Speaking in Washington last month, where he was attending a meeting of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the Minister for Finance said the next stage of renegotiation would focus on bringing the overall debt burden down, which could include "a different arrangement" for the promissory notes in Anglo.
He said imposing losses on bondholders had been tried in Greece, but the immediate effect of private sector involvement in reducing the Greek debt was to transfer the pressure onto Italy and Spain.