Fitch Downgrades 8 BANKING GIANTS – S&P Downgrades 10 Spanish Banks

S&P slaps ten Spanish banks with downgrade (Sydney Morning Herald, Dec. 16, 2011):

Standard and Poor’s downgraded Thursday the credit rating of 10 Spanish banks after applying new criteria, and warned it may lower their short-term scores further.

The 10 banks had their ratings lowered and remained in “creditwatch with negative implications”, indicating the risk of a further downgrade, Standard and Poor’s said in a statement.

S&P cuts ratings of 10 Spanish banks? (Reuters, Dec. 15, 2011):

Standard & Poor’s cut the credit ratings of 10 Spanish banks on Thursday and said they remained on watch for a possible further cut subject to a review of Spain’s sovereign rating.

Fitch cuts ratings on 8 major banks? (AP, Dec. 15, 2011):

NEW YORK (AP) — Fitch Ratings on Thursday downgraded its viability ratings on eight of the world’s biggest banks, citing increased challenges facing the banking sector due to weak economic growth and heightened regulation.

The firm lowered its viability ratings for Bank of America Corp., Barclays PLC, BNP Paribas, Credit Suisse AG, Deutsche Bank AG, The Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Morgan Stanley and Societe Generale.

Bank of America’s viability rating was lower to “bbb,” which Fitch says denotes “good” prospects for ongoing viability. It had been “a-.” The other banks have new ratings of “a-,” ”a,” or “a+,” a range denoting “strong” prospects for ongoing viability, according to Fitch.

It also downgraded its long-term issuer-default rating for most of the banks: Bank of America, Barclays, BNP Paribas, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank and Goldman Sachs. The ratings still remain well into investment grade, at “A” or “A+” following the downgrades.

Fitch affirmed its long-term issuer-default ratings for Morgan Stanley, Society Generale and UBS AG.

In addition, it affirmed UBS’ viability rating at “a-.”

The rating changes follow a review by Fitch of large banks.

Fitch downgrades seven banking giants (BBC News, Dec. 16, 2011)

Fitch downgrades 8 global banks (GMA News, Dec. 15, 2011)

Leave a Comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.