DBRS Assigns Ratings to BNP Paribas Canada Branch; Senior Debt at AA, S-T R-1 (High), Negative Trend

DBRS, Inc. (DBRS) has today assigned ratings to BNP Paribas Canada Branch (BNPP Canada Branch), including a Senior Unsecured Debt rating of AA and a Short-Term Instruments rating of R-1 (high). The trend on these ratings is Negative.

DBRS rates BNP Paribas (Canada) (BNPP Canada)’s Senior Unsecured Debt & Deposits at AA with a Negative Trend and its Short-Term Debt & Deposits at R-1 (high) with a Negative Trend. The ratings of BNPP Canada reflect the strength of its parent, BNP Paribas SA (BNPP), which owns 100% of the shares of BNPP Canada and guarantees its rated debt instruments.

DBRS also maintains an intrinsic assessment (IA) of AA (low) for BNP Paribas (BNPP or the Group). The final ratings of BNPP Canada reflect DBRS’s perspective on the Group’s IA and its systemic importance in France. The final ratings are positioned one notch above the IA, incorporating DBRS’s expectation of some form of timely systemic support for the Group in the event of a stress scenario, which is reflected in a Support Assessment (SA) of SA-2.

These ratings on BNPP Canada Branch are in line with the ratings of BNPP Canada. These ratings are subject to the maintenance of the Group’s IA at AA (low) and DBRS’s view on systemic support for the parent.

Notes:
All figures are in Euros (EUR) unless otherwise noted.

The principal applicable methodology is the Global Methodology for Rating Banks and Banking Organisations. Other applicable methodologies include the following: DBRS Criteria: Support Assessment for Banks and Banking Organisations and DBRS Criteria: Rating Bank Capital Securities – Subordinated, Hybrid, Preferred & Contingent Capital Securities. These can be found on the DBRS website under Methodologies.

The primary sources of information used for this rating include company documents, the European Banking Authority, 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.

Lead Analyst: Roger Lister
Rating Committee Chair: Elisabeth Rudman
Initial Rating Date: 5 May 2014
Most Recent Rating Update: 5 May 2014

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