Actions follow reviews of European and US parents and assessment of standalone credit ratings positioned above the sovereign
New York, February 24, 2012 -- Moody's Investors Service (or Moody's de Mexico for Mexican
national scale ratings) today placed on review for downgrade certain long
and short term debt and deposit ratings of 15 Mexican and Brazilian banking
and insurance groups. Today's announcement follows the review
for downgrade initiated on several European and US banks on February 15,
2012, as well as Moody's global assessment of linkages between
financial institutions and sovereign credit risk.
Today's reviews are focused on the following two issues:
1) The potentially diminished capacity and/or willingness by European
and US financial institutions to provide support to their Latin American
subsidiaries. This review will be concluded after the parent groups'
reviews are concluded.
2) The sensitivity and degree to which certain issuers' standalone
credit profiles are correlated with sovereign credit quality.
Please click on this http://www.moodys.com/viewresearchdoc.aspx?docid=PBC_140121
for the List of Affected Credit Ratings. This list is an integral
part of this Press Release and identifies each affected issuer.
REVIEW RATIONALE
REVIEW OF SUBSIDIARIES' LONG-TERM AND STANDALONE RATINGS
Moody's will assess the effects of any sustained decline in the
capacity of parent groups to support their cross border subsidiaries.
It will also assess any changes in the willingness or likelihood that
parent groups will provide support if needed. This part of the
review will consider: (i) any pressure on a parent group to refocus
on its core domestic franchise; (ii) any changes in the medium term
strategic fit of a subsidiary; and (iii) the potential for a gradual
withdrawal from the markets in which a subsidiary operates, given
the Europe-wide scarcity of capital resources and the challenges
faced by financial institutions with capital markets operations.
Moody's will also assess concerns about how pressure on the parent
groups may affect the subsidiaries' standalone credit profiles through
their close ties, including financial, branding and managerial
linkages. The assessment will look at the risk that subsidiaries
may come under pressure to return capital to their parents or take more
risks to grow profits. Moody's will also assess the positioning
of each subsidiary's standalone credit assessment relative to its
parent's standalone profile, taking into account (i) funding
and/or operating dependence on the parent; (ii) profitability;
(iii) exposure to the parent and common exposures; and (iv) regulatory
barriers to control the distribution of capital resources from the subsidiary
to a parent. Under Moody's joint-default analysis
methodology, assumptions about the capacity and willingness of parent
banks to support their subsidiaries if required can lead to a subsidiary's
debt and deposit ratings being lifted above its standalone credit assessment.
Today's review follows the action taken on the affected subsidiaries'
parents, specifically six European and two US banking groups.
These actions are further discussed in the press releases "Moody's
Reviews Ratings for European Banks" and "Moody's Reviews Ratings
for Banks and Securities Firms with Global Capital Markets Operations,"
both dated February 15, 2012
REVIEW OF STANDALONE RATINGS OF BANKS AND INSURANCE COMPANIES ABOVE SOVEREIGN
DEBT RATINGS
During the reviews of Mexican and Brazilian entities whose standalone
credit assessments are currently above the ratings of their respective
sovereigns, Moody's will assess the degree to which their
standalone credit profiles are correlated with those of the sovereigns.
The reviews will take into account (i) the extent to which the entities'
business is dependent on the domestic macroeconomic and financial environment,
(ii) reliance on market-based and therefore more confidence-sensitive
funding, and (iii) direct or indirect exposures to domestic sovereign
debt. This review reflects Moody's assessment of the correlation
between sovereign and financial institutions credit risk globally,
a view that is further discussed in the rating implementation guidance
"How Sovereign Credit Quality May Affect Other Ratings" published
on February 13, 2012.
WHICH FIRMS ARE AFFECTED
Subsidiaries of European or US financial institutions:
MEXICO
Deutsche Bank Mexico, S.A.
Bank of America Mexico, S.A.
Banco Credit Suisse Mexico, S.A.
Barclays Bank Mexico, S.A.
BRAZIL
Banco Santander (Brasil) S.A.
Banco Citibank S.A.
BES Investimento do Brasil S.A. HSBC Bank Brasil S.A.
- Banco Multiplo
Financial institutions with standalone ratings above their sovereign:
BRAZIL
Banco Bradesco S.A.
Itaú Unibanco Holding (including banking and insurance subsidiaries)
Banco do Brasil S.A.
Banco Votorantim S.A.
Banco Safra S.A.
Subsidiaries of US and European financial institutions with standalone
ratings above their sovereign:
MEXICO
BBVA Bancomer S.A.
Banco Nacional de Mexico S.A.
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 March 2011 entitled "Mapping Moody's National Scale
Ratings to Global Scale Ratings".
REGULATORY DISCLOSURES
Please click on this link http://www.moodys.com/viewresearchdoc.aspx?docid=PBC_140121
for the List of Affected Credit Ratings. This list is an integral
part of this Press Release and provides, for each of the credit
ratings covered, Moody's disclosures on the following items:
Principal Methodologies
Sources of Information
Local Market Analyst
Person approving the credit rating
Releasing office
Although these credit ratings have been issued in a non-EU country
which has not been recognized as endorsable at this date, the credit
ratings are deemed "EU qualified by extension" and may still
be used by financial institutions for regulatory purposes until 30 April
2012. Further information on the EU endorsement status and on the
Moody's office that has issued a particular Credit Rating is available
on www.moodys.com.
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.
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.
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 for each issuer the 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.
The below contact information is provided for information purposes only.
Please see the issuer page on www.moodys.com for Moody's
regulatory disclosure of the name of the lead analyst and the office that
has issued the credit rating.
Jeanne Del Casino
VP - Senior Credit Officer
Financial Institutions Group
Moody's Investors Service, Inc.
250 Greenwich Street
New York, NY 10007
U.S.A.
JOURNALISTS: 212-553-0376
SUBSCRIBERS: 212-553-1653
M. Celina Vansetti
MD - Banking
Financial Institutions Group
JOURNALISTS: 212-553-0376
SUBSCRIBERS: 212-553-1653
Releasing Office:
Moody's Investors Service, Inc.
250 Greenwich Street
New York, NY 10007
U.S.A.
JOURNALISTS: 212-553-0376
SUBSCRIBERS: 212-553-1653
Moody's reviews Mexican and Brazilian banking and insurance groups for downgrade