Frankfurt am Main, January 27, 2012 -- Moody's Investors Service has today downgraded the long-term global
local-currency (GLC) deposit rating of HSBC Bank A.S.
- Turkey (HSBC -- Turkey) to Baa1 from A3 and affirmed
the D+ standalone bank financial strength rating (BFSR), but
remapped it to Ba1 from Baa3 on the long-term scale. At
the same time, Moody's downgraded the bank's national scale
rating (NSR) to Aa2.tr from Aa1.tr. The rating agency
also affirmed HSBC -- Turkey's Ba3 long-term foreign-currency
deposit rating, Prime-2 and TR-1 short-term
GLC deposit ratings. The outlook for the foreign-currency
deposit rating is positive. The outlook on the short-term
ratings is stable, whilst the outlook on the other ratings has been
changed to negative from stable.
RATINGS RATIONALE
Moody's says that the downgrade of the standalone GLC deposit rating was
triggered by a combination of (i) the deterioration in the bank's
modest profitability, in risk-adjusted terms (ii) efficiency
indicators lagging sector average; and (iii) Moody's expectation
of a system-wide economic slowdown in Turkey that will exert further
pressure on the bank's asset quality and profitability indicators.
Moody's believes that the D+ BFSR is supported by the bank's overall
small consumer and commercial franchise and its modest credit card and
corporate franchises, sound capitalisation and liquidity.
Additional supporting factors include its moderate asset quality,
and improving deposit-funding base. However, the lower
remapping of the BFSR and the negative outlook reflect the bank's
below sector average profitability indicators -- in risk-adjusted
terms -- and the longer-term challenges that the
evolution of its franchise faces, namely the strong competition
from other domestic banks. This includes banks with strong retail
and commercial franchises that have also pursued network expansions.
The share of revenues from retail operations are modest, because
the historical performance of the bank's retail portfolio has constrained
its ability to effectively commercially leverage its pre-2008 branch
expansion. Furthermore, its asset quality could experience
higher volatility compared with the sector average, due to the bank's
higher exposure to unsecured consumer credits and SMEs, segments
that are more vulnerable to economic swings. The assigned rating
also reflects the bank's relatively weaker efficiency indicators at a
time when efficiency and economies of scale are of increasing importance
due to the lower net interest-margin environment within the Turkish
banking system. The expansionary mode of the bank's franchise
is one of the factors adversely affecting its efficiency indicators and
Moody's believes that this metric could improve over the medium
term, if the bank's projected higher geographical coverage
potentially yields an increased commercial leverage over the medium term.
Moody's downgraded HSBC -- Turkey's NSR to Aa2.tr
from Aa1.tr -- the lower of the two NSRs mapping
from the Baa1 GLC deposit rating -- due to the negative
outlook on the bank's GLC rating. The rating carries a negative
outlook due to the negative outlook on the bank GLC deposit rating.
The affirmation of the bank's short-term GLC deposit rating resulted
in the affirmation of the bank's short-term NSR of TR-1.
POTENTIAL TRIGGERS FOR AN UPGRADE/DOWNGRADE
There is currently no upward pressure on the BFSR, reflected in
the negative outlook. Downward rating pressure could emerge if
(i) profitability and efficiency indicators weaken further; (ii)
asset quality deteriorates; (iii) retail revenue generation declines;
or (iv) the credit growth rate exceeds growth in high-quality stable
deposits, increasing the bank's reliance on wholesale funding and
reversing the improving trend in the bank's funding base.
The bank's long-term GLC deposit rating incorporates parental support
from HSBC Holdings Plc, (Aa2, with negative outlook).
This provides three notches of rating uplift to HSBC --
Turkey's GLC deposit rating. However, despite the high rating
of the parent compared with HSBC -- Turkey's BFSR and our
assumptions of a high degree of parental support (in case of need),
the combination of (i) the negative outlook on the parent's rating;
and (ii) the negative outlook on the HSBC -- Turkey's BFSR
underpin the negative outlook on its GLC rating.
RATING METHODOLOGY
The principal methodologies used in this rating were "Bank Financial
Strength Ratings: Global Methodology" published in February
2007, and "Incorporation of Joint-Default Analysis
into Moody's Bank Ratings: A Refined Methodology" published
in March 2007. Please see the Credit Policy page on www.moodys.com
for a copy of these methodologies.
Moody's National Scale Ratings (NSRs) are intended as relative measures
of creditworthiness among debt issues and issuers within a country,
enabling market participants to better differentiate relative risks.
NSRs differ from Moody's global scale ratings in that they are not globally
comparable with the full universe of Moody's rated entities, but
only with NSRs for other rated debt issues and issuers within the same
country. NSRs are designated by a ".nn" country modifier
signifying the relevant country, as in ".mx" for Mexico.
For further information on Moody's approach to national scale ratings,
please refer to Moody's Rating Implementation Guidance published in August
2010 entitled "Mapping Moody's National Scale Ratings to Global Scale
Ratings."
REGULATORY DISCLOSURES
For ratings issued on a program, series or category/class of debt,
this announcement provides relevant regulatory disclosures in relation
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this announcement provides relevant regulatory disclosures in relation
to the rating action on the support provider and in relation to each particular
rating action for securities that derive their credit ratings from the
support provider's credit rating. For provisional ratings,
this announcement provides relevant regulatory disclosures in relation
to the provisional rating assigned, and in relation to a definitive
rating that may be assigned subsequent to the final issuance of the debt,
in each case where the transaction structure and terms have not changed
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the lead rating analyst and to the Moody's legal entity that has issued
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Arif Bekiroglu
Asst Vice President - Analyst
Financial Institutions Group
Moody's Deutschland GmbH
An der Welle 5
Frankfurt am Main 60322
Germany
JOURNALISTS: 44 20 7772 5456
SUBSCRIBERS: 44 20 7772 5454
Carola Schuler
MD - Banking
Financial Institutions Group
JOURNALISTS: 44 20 7772 5456
SUBSCRIBERS: 44 20 7772 5454
Releasing Office:
Moody's Deutschland GmbH
An der Welle 5
Frankfurt am Main 60322
Germany
JOURNALISTS: 44 20 7772 5456
SUBSCRIBERS: 44 20 7772 5454
Moody's downgrades HSBC AS (Turkey) to Baa1 from A3