London, 25 April 2012 -- The following release represents Moody's Investors Service's summary credit
opinion on Yorkshire Building Society and includes certain regulatory
disclosures regarding its ratings. This release does not constitute
any change in Moody's ratings or rating rationale for Yorkshire Building
Society.
Moody's current ratings on Yorkshire Building Society and its affiliates
are:
Senior Unsecured (domestic currency) ratings of Baa2
Senior Unsecured MTN Program (domestic currency) ratings of (P)Baa2
Long Term Bank Deposits (domestic and foreign currency) ratings of Baa2
Bank Financial Strength ratings of C-
Subordinate (domestic currency) ratings of Baa3
Subordinate MTN Program (domestic currency) ratings of (P)Baa3
Short Term Bank Deposits (domestic and foreign currency) ratings of P-2
Other Short Term (domestic currency) ratings of (P)P-2
BACKED Senior Unsecured (foreign currency) ratings of Aaa
BACKED Senior Unsecured MTN Program (domestic currency) ratings of (P)Aaa
Chelsea Building Society
Senior Unsecured MTN Program (domestic currency) ratings of (P)Baa2
BACKED Senior Unsecured (domestic and foreign currency) ratings of Baa2
RATING RATIONALE
Moody's assigns a C- BFSR to Yorkshire Building Society (Yorkshire),
which reflects the society's multi-regional franchise, its
solid retail funding base, their successful track record in the
integration of two other building societies, as well as its exposure
to non-standard lending whose potential losses in a forward looking
scenario could put pressure on capital levels. It also takes into
account Yorkshire's efficiency measures which are relatively lower than
its peers.
Yorkshire has assets of approximately GBP30bn, 3.3mn
members and a network of 224 branches. Yorkshire is the second
largest building society in the UK.
The C- BFSR incorporates the society's post-acquisition
expanded franchise (Yorkshire acquired Chelsea Building Society in April
2010 and Norwich & Peterborough Building Society in November 2011)
as well as its restored profitability which is balanced by the integration
risks related to its recent acquisitions including the fact that Yorkshire
has little experience in managing a buy-to-let portfolio
(gained through Chelsea acquisition) and some uncertainty in terms of
potential impact of its most recent merger with Norwich & Peterborough.
The BFSR also takes into account Yorkshire's current prudent liquidity
management, its solid deposit franchise and the expectation that
funding will remain solid as it is indicated by its strong deposit base
and its relative ease of access to the covered bond and securitisation
market.
Yorkshire's long term deposit rating and short term deposit ratings
of Baa2/P-2 incorporate no systemic support uplift and as such
are in line with its standalone rating which is currently at baa2.
The outlook on both the BFSR and the deposit ratings is stable.
Rating Outlook
The stable outlook on Yorkshire reflects the stabilization of Yorkshire's
earnings and the strength of its capital base, which together with
the improvements in its franchise and balances sheet risk should support
any deterioration in its arrears which may result from further pressures
on the economy going forward.
What Could Change the Rating - Up
Given remaining concerns with respect to asset quality and integration
risks, Yorkshire will be challenged to attain a higher BFSR in the
short-term. However, a continued and sustainable positive
trend in profitability and interest margins coupled with improvement in
risk composition and arrears in its enlarged portfolio could put positive
rating pressure on its BFSR.
What Could Change the Rating - Down
Continued deterioration in asset quality or a significant negative shift
in assumptions underlying forward looking loss analysis would be factors
for determining whether a downward adjustment in the BFSR is appropriate.
More generally an inability to generate greater risk-weighted returns
along with deterioration in retail funding to levels that are out of line
with those of peers could lead to downward pressure on the BFSR.
The methodologies used in these ratings were Bank Financial Strength Ratings:
Global Methodology published in February 2007, and Incorporation
of Joint-Default Analysis into Moody's Bank Ratings: A Global
Methodology published in March 2012. Please see the Credit Policy
page on www.moodys.com for a copy of these methodologies.
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 ratings have been disclosed to the rated entities or their designated
agent(s) and issued with no amendment resulting from that disclosure.
Information sources used to prepare each of the ratings are the following:
parties involved in the ratings, public information, and confidential
and proprietary Moody's Investors Service information.
Moody's considers the quality of information available on the rated
entities, obligations or credits satisfactory for the purposes of
issuing these ratings.
Moody's adopts all necessary measures so that the information it
uses in assigning the ratings 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.
Yorkshire Building Society has received a Rating Assessment Service within
the last two years preceding the Credit Rating Action.
Moody's Investors Service may have provided Ancillary or Other Permissible
Service(s) to the rated entities or their 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.
Bineesha Wickremarachchi
Associate Analyst
Financial Institutions Group
Moody's Investors Service Ltd.
One Canada Square
Canary Wharf
London E14 5FA
United Kingdom
JOURNALISTS: 44 20 7772 5456
SUBSCRIBERS: 44 20 7772 5454
Johannes Felix Wassenberg
MD - Banking
Financial Institutions Group
JOURNALISTS: 44 20 7772 5456
SUBSCRIBERS: 44 20 7772 5454
Releasing Office:
Moody's Investors Service Ltd.
One Canada Square
Canary Wharf
London E14 5FA
United Kingdom
JOURNALISTS: 44 20 7772 5456
SUBSCRIBERS: 44 20 7772 5454
Moody's Disclosures on Credit Rating of Yorkshire Building Society