By Tess Stynes
Standard & Poor's Ratings Services cut its credit ratings on
several European commercial banks on Tuesday, saying it considers
the prospect that the governments would provide extraordinary
support to their banking systems to be uncertain.
The firm lowered its ratings on Deutsche Bank AG, Royal Bank of
Scotland NV and Commerzbank AG to triple-B-plus, three notches
above junk territory. For RBS and Commerzbank, that marked a
one-notch downgrade, but it was two for Deutsche Bank.
Barclays PLC, meanwhile, got a one-notch downgrade to A-minus,
putting it a level above the other banks. And S&P cut UniCredit
Bank AG by two levels to triple-B.
S&P said the outlooks on Barclays, Deutsche Bank and Royal
Bank of Scotland are stable, while Commerzbank and UniCredit are
negative.
The credit rater affirmed its ratings on Lloyds Bank PLC and
HSBC Bank PLC and said the outlooks are stable.
S&P said the ratings actions reflect the introduction of
well-formed bank resolution frameworks in those countries and the
continuing regulatory impetus to have banks with systemic
importance hold sizeable capital buffers as well as reduced
prospects for government intervention in any potential crisis.
As for the big Swiss banks, S&P revised its outlook on
Credit Suisse AG and UBS AG to stable from negative, pointing to
their capital buffers, which the ratings firm expects to keep
growing in the coming two years.
The ratings firm also removed its ratings on several other
European banks from its watch list for potential downgrade.
Write to Tess Stynes at tess.stynes@wsj.com
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