Actions follow the review for downgrade of parent's ratings
Frankfurt am Main, February 21, 2012 -- Moody's Investors Service has today placed under review for downgrade
the Baa1 global local-currency (GLC) deposit rating and Aa2.tr
long-term national scale rating (NSR) of HSBC Bank A.S.
- Turkey (HSBC - Turkey). The rating announcements
follow the review for downgrade of the ratings of HSBC - Turkey's
parent, HSBC Holdings plc (Aa2), which was announced on February
15th, 2012. Its other ratings are unaffected.
RATINGS RATIONALE
The review for downgrade of HSBC - Turkey's GLC deposit rating
follows Moody's review for downgrade of the ratings of its parent HSBC
Holdings, (see press release "Moody's Reviews Ratings for European
Banks, published 15 February 2012). HSBC -- Turkey's GLC deposit rating currently incorporates a three-notch rating uplift due to parental support. The
weakening capacity of HSBC Holdings plc, as reflected in the review
for downgrade of its ratings, exerts downward rating pressure on
HSBC - Turkey.
Further, HSBC - Turkey's Aa2.tr long-term NSR
was placed on review for downgrade as it maps directly from the bank's
GLC deposit rating on Turkey's long-term national rating scale.
Moody's expects to conclude today's announced review placements,
when the parent's review placement is concluded.
POTENTIAL TRIGGERS FOR AN UPGRADE/DOWNGRADE
Currently there is no upward rating pressure as expressed by the review
for downgrade.
Negative rating pressure primarily results from a downgrade of HSBC Holdings'
ratings. The review will assess the impact of any reduction in
the long-term capacity of HSBC Holdings plc to provide support
to HSBC - Turkey, as captured by any lowering of HSBC Holdings'
ratings.
METHODOLOGIES USED
The methodologies used in this rating were Bank Financial Strength Ratings:
Global Methodology published in February 2007, 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
to each rating of a subsequently issued bond or note of the same series
or category/class of debt or pursuant to a program for which the ratings
are derived exclusively from existing ratings in accordance with Moody's
rating practices. For ratings issued on a support provider,
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
prior to the assignment of the definitive rating in a manner that would
have affected the rating. For further information please see the
ratings tab on the issuer/entity page for the respective issuer on www.moodys.com.
The rating has been disclosed to the rated entity or its designated agent(s)
and issued with no amendment resulting from that disclosure.
Information sources used to prepare the rating are the following :
parties involved in the ratings, and public information.
Moody's considers the quality of information available on the rated
entity, obligation or credit satisfactory for the purposes of issuing
this review.
Moody's adopts all necessary measures so that the information it
uses in assigning a rating is of sufficient quality and from sources Moody's
considers to be reliable including, when appropriate, independent
third-party sources. However, Moody's is not
an auditor and cannot in every instance independently verify or validate
information received in the rating process.
Moody's Investors Service may have provided Ancillary or Other Permissible
Service(s) to the rated entity or its related third parties within the
two years preceding the credit rating action. Please see the special
report "Ancillary or other permissible services provided to entities
rated by MIS's EU credit rating agencies" on the ratings disclosure
page on our website www.moodys.com for further information.
Please see the ratings disclosure page on www.moodys.com
for general disclosure on potential conflicts of interests.
Please see the ratings disclosure page on www.moodys.com
for information on (A) MCO's major shareholders (above 5%)
and for (B) further information regarding certain affiliations that may
exist between directors of MCO and rated entities as well as (C) the names
of entities that hold ratings from MIS that have also publicly reported
to the SEC an ownership interest in MCO of more than 5%.
A member of the board of directors of this rated entity may also be a
member of the board of directors of a shareholder of Moody's Corporation;
however, Moody's has not independently verified this matter.
Please see Moody's Rating Symbols and Definitions on the Rating
Process page on www.moodys.com for further information on
the meaning of each rating category and the definition of default and
recovery.
Please see ratings tab on the issuer/entity page on www.moodys.com
for the last rating action and the rating history. The date on
which some ratings were first released goes back to a time before Moody's
ratings were fully digitized and accurate data may not be available.
Consequently, Moody's provides a date that it believes is
the most reliable and accurate based on the information that is available
to it. Please see the ratings disclosure page on our website www.moodys.com
for further information.
Please see www.moodys.com for any updates on changes to
the lead rating analyst and to the Moody's legal entity that has
issued the rating.
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 reviews HSBC's Turkish subsidiary for downgrade