London, 11 September 2012 -- The outlook for the UK banking system remains negative, says Moody's
Investors Service in a new Banking System Outlook published today.
The key drivers of the negative outlook are (1) the UK's uncertain
economic prospects; (2) downside risks for asset-quality;
and (3) pressure on profitability due to net interest margin pressure,
weak credit growth, and higher regulatory and compliance costs.
The new report, entitled "Banking System Outlook: United Kingdom,"
is now available on www.moodys.com. Moody's subscribers
can access this report via the link provided at the end of this press
release.
"The continued negative outlook for the UK banking sector is driven
by the UK's uncertain economic prospects, pressure on profitability
and downside risks for asset-quality," says Elisabeth
Rudman, a Moody's Senior Vice President. "These
factors are partially offset by strengthened capital ratios, strong
business franchises that are capable of generating strong underlying pre-provision
earnings, and the banks' progress in improving liquidity and
reducing reliance on short-term funding," says Ms.
Rudman.
In addition, Moody's continued view is that the probability
of government support for systemically important institutions will decline
over the medium-term as authorities move towards implementing new
recovery and resolution frameworks. This is reflected in a negative
outlook on the senior debt and deposit ratings of the largest banks,
which currently all incorporate very high assumptions of government support.
However, Moody's has a stable outlook on the standalone financial
strength ratings of most banks and building societies, reflecting
the fact that their standalone ratings incorporate to a certain extent
the risks highlighted above.
Moody's says that the weak economic growth prospects over the 12-18
month outlook period imply that the operating environment for UK banks
will remain challenging. As previously noted in August, Moody's
expects UK economic growth to be marginally positive, although Moody's
central growth projection ranges from between -0.5%
and 0.5% in 2012, with the macro-economic downside
risks outweighing any positive factors.
Moody's expects some further reductions in impairment charges over
the next 12-18 months, as banks move past the worst of the
asset quality problems that emerged over 2009 -- 10, although
the risks remain skewed to the downside due to the weak economic conditions.
The asset quality of banks' domestic mortgage lending portfolios
are likely to remain supported over the outlook period by very low interest
rates, relatively stable property prices and fairly steady unemployment
levels.
However, Moody's says that areas of downside risk for banks
are their exposures to the UK commercial real-estate market and
retail and corporate loan exposures in the European peripheral countries.
Despite efforts to reduce exposures, some banks still have significant
concentrations in commercial real estate and in Moody's view,
there is a risk of further defaults and higher provisions in this sector.
In addition, although UK banks have limited exposure to sovereign
debt from peripheral European countries, their other exposures (predominantly
lower risk residential mortgages in Spain and Italy, and higher
risk -- but well provisioned -- exposures in Ireland) could
still be a source of further impairment charges. However,
Moody's scenario analysis suggests that UK banks have enough capital
to absorb potential losses both under its central stress scenario and
also under its adverse stress scenario.
Despite lower impairment charges, profitability is likely to remain
under pressure over 2012-13 due to net interest margin pressures,
the adverse growth environment, higher regulatory and compliance
costs and subdued capital market activities. In particular,
the larger banks have suffered from ongoing charges in relation to a variety
of regulatory and compliance failures and given the tough regulatory environment
we expect such costs to remain high. However, UK banks have
implemented cost-cutting strategies that Moody's believes
will allow them to offset some of the challenges they face and broadly
maintain their efficiency metrics over the outlook period.
Subscribers can access this report via this link: http://www.moodys.com/viewresearchdoc.aspx?docid=PBC_145221.
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Elisabeth Rudman
Senior Vice President
Financial Institutions Group
Moody's Investors Service Ltd.
One Canada Square
Canary Wharf
London E14 5FA
United Kingdom
JOURNALISTS: 44 20 7772 5456
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Johannes Wassenberg
MD - Banking
Financial Institutions Group
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Moody's: UK's banking system outlook remains negative