DBRS assigns a BB (high) rating to Fifth Third Bancorp’s Series H Preferred Stock; Trend Stable

DBRS, Inc. (DBRS) has today assigned a rating of BB (high) with Stable trend to Fifth Third Bancorp’s (Fifth Third or the Company) $593 million issuance of non-cumulative perpetual preferred stock. The ratings are positioned four notches below Fifth Third’s Issuer & Senior Debt rating of A (low), which also carries a Stable trend. This notching is consistent with DBRS’s base notching policy for preferred shares issued for A (low) rated entities.

Fifth Third expects to use the net proceeds from the sale of the preferred stock for general corporate purposes, which may include repurchases of common stock.

Headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio, Fifth Third reported $121 billion in consolidated assets as of March 31, 2013. Fifth Third’s tangible common equity and Tier 1 common ratios were 9.03% and 9.70%, respectively, at the end of 1Q13.

Notes:
All figures are in U.S. dollars unless otherwise noted.

The principal applicable methodology is the Global Methodology for Rating Banks and Banking Organisations. Other methodologies include the DBRS Criteria: Intrinsic and Support Assessments, and DBRS Criteria: Rating Bank Preferred Shares & Equivalent Hybrids. All documents can be found at: http://www.dbrs.com/about/methodologies

The sources of information used for this rating include the issuer, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and SNL Financial. DBRS considers the information available to it for the purposes of providing this rating was of satisfactory quality.

This rating is endorsed by DBRS Ratings Limited for use in the European Union.

[Amended on September 2, 2014, to reflect actual methodologies used.]

Lead Analyst: Mark Nolan
Rating Committee Chair: Alan G. Reid
Initial Rating Date: 27 July 2005
Most Recent Rating Update: 22 March 2013

For additional information on this rating, please refer to the linking document under Related Research.