Frankfurt am Main, June 15, 2018 -- Moody's Investors Service has today placed on review for upgrade the A2
long-term deposit ratings of KfW IPEX-Bank GmbH (IPEX-Bank).
Concurrently, the rating agency placed the bank's baa3 Baseline
Credit Assessment (BCA) and its baa3 Adjusted BCA, as well as its
A2(cr) Counterparty Risk Assessment on review for upgrade. The
short-term P-1 deposit ratings and the short-term
P-1(cr) Counterparty Risk Assessment were affirmed.
The review for upgrade placement was prompted by Moody's re-assessment
of the degree of financial integration and dependency of IPEX-Bank
with German government-owned Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau
(KfW, deposits: Aaa stable). KfW's ability to
financially assist its commercial banking subsidiary IPEX-Bank
within European competition laws appears to be beyond the rating agency's
previous expectations. During the review period, Moody's
will therefore evaluate to what extent these factors could support a closer
conversion of IPEX-Bank ratings with those of its parent,
indicating the potential for a ratings upgrade by more than one notch
upon the closure of the review.
For a full list of all affected ratings, please refer to the end
of this press release.
RATINGS RATIONALE
By placing the BCA and deposit ratings on review for upgrade, Moody's
has taken into account the specific characteristics of financial dependency
and integration of IPEX-Bank into KfW, as well as the bank's
strengthened financial metrics, particularly following various capital
measures undertaken by its parent KfW in 2017.
During 2017, KfW injected €300 million capital and returned
most of IPEX-Bank's 2016 after-tax profit, which
is typically upstreamed through a profit & loss transfer agreement.
These measures lifted IPEX-Bank's tangible common equity
(TCE) to risk-weighted asset ratio to 20.2% as of
December 2017 from 14.7% as of December 2016, providing
stronger risk absorption buffers against IPEX-Bank's concentrated
exposures to highly cyclical industry sectors. By doing so,
KfW demonstrated the ability to provide financial assistance to its commercial
banking subsidiary in a precautionary manner and in line with EU competition
laws.
IPEX-Bank relies on a funding and liquidity framework with KfW,
whereby IPEX-Bank funds itself almost exclusively through its parent
at market rates. Despite this funding dependency, the rating
agency considers the availability of this framework a credit strength
for IPEX-Bank's overall credit profile.
During the ratings review, Moody's will re-assess the
unique operational and structural interlinkages between IPEX-Bank
and its parent, in particular as KfW's ability to financially
assist its commercial banking subsidiary IPEX-Bank within European
competition laws appears to be beyond the rating agency's previous
expectations. Depending on the assessment to what extent these
factors could support a closer conversion of IPEX-Bank ratings
with those of its parent, IPEX-Bank's BCA and long-term
deposit ratings could be upgraded by more than one notch.
WHAT COULD CHANGE THE RATING - UP / DOWN
As indicated by the rating review for upgrade, Moody's expects
to upgrade, possibly by more than one notch, IPEX-Bank's
ratings. If Moody's concludes that the improved capitalization
and unique organizational characteristics of IPEX-Bank warrant
a lower probability of default assessment for IPEX-Bank,
the bank's baa3 BCA could be upgraded by more than one notch.
This would also lead to higher long-term deposit ratings,
as reflected in the review for upgrade.
Moody's does not expect downward pressure on the bank's ratings
as indicated by the review for upgrade. However, the bank's
ratings could be downgraded if the financial and funding integration of
IPEX-Bank were to change or if a massive and unexpected fundamental
deterioration of the bank's solvency profile results in significant
pressure on the BCA. The ratings could also be downgraded if Moody's
reduces the combined uplift provided by its Advanced LGF analysis and
its government support assumptions, which is highly unlikely at
present, though.
LIST OF AFFECTED RATINGS
Issuer: KfW IPEX-Bank GmbH
..Placed on Review for Upgrade:
....Long-term Bank Deposits,
currently A2, outlook changed to Rating under Review from Stable
....Long-term Counterparty Risk Assessment,
currently A2(cr)
....Adjusted Baseline Credit Assessment,
currently baa3
....Baseline Credit Assessment, currently
baa3
..Affirmations:
....Short-term Bank Deposits,
affirmed P-1
....Short-term Counterparty Risk Assessment,
affirmed P-1(cr)
..Outlook Action:
....Outlook changed to Rating under Review
from Stable
PRINCIPAL METHODOLOGY
The principal methodology used in these ratings was Banks published in
June 2018. Please see the Rating Methodologies page on www.moodys.com
for a copy of this methodology.
REGULATORY DISCLOSURES
For ratings issued on a program, series or category/class of debt,
this announcement provides certain 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 certain regulatory disclosures in relation
to the credit rating action on the support provider and in relation to
each particular credit rating action for securities that derive their
credit ratings from the support provider's credit rating.
For provisional ratings, this announcement provides certain 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.
For any affected securities or rated entities receiving direct credit
support from the primary entity(ies) of this credit rating action,
and whose ratings may change as a result of this credit rating action,
the associated regulatory disclosures will be those of the guarantor entity.
Exceptions to this approach exist for the following disclosures,
if applicable to jurisdiction: Ancillary Services, Disclosure
to rated entity, Disclosure from rated entity.
Regulatory disclosures contained in this press release apply to the credit
rating and, if applicable, the related rating outlook or rating
review.
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.
Please see the ratings tab on the issuer/entity page on www.moodys.com
for additional regulatory disclosures for each credit rating.
Goetz Thurm
Vice President - Senior Analyst
Financial Institutions Group
Moody's Deutschland GmbH
An der Welle 5
Frankfurt am Main 60322
Germany
JOURNALISTS: 44 20 7772 5456
Client Service: 44 20 7772 5454
Carola Schuler
MD - Banking
Financial Institutions Group
JOURNALISTS: 44 20 7772 5456
Client Service: 44 20 7772 5454
Releasing Office:
Moody's Deutschland GmbH
An der Welle 5
Frankfurt am Main 60322
Germany
JOURNALISTS: 44 20 7772 5456
Client Service: 44 20 7772 5454