DBRS Upgrades Irish Guaranteed LT Debt of Bank of Ireland to ‘A’; Trend Stable

DBRS Ratings Limited (DBRS) has today upgraded to ‘A’ from A (low) the Long-Term ratings of the Irish Government Guaranteed instruments issued by Bank of Ireland (BoI or the Group). The trend on the Guaranteed Long-Term ratings is now Stable.

This rating action follows DBRS’s upgrade of the Republic of Ireland to ‘A’ with a Stable trend on March 13, 2015. Today’s rating action does not impact the other ratings of BoI including its Non-Guaranteed Long-Term Deposits and Non-Guaranteed Long-Term Debt ratings, which remain at BBB (high) with a Negative trend.

As a result of the guarantee, the Guaranteed Long-Term ratings will move in line with the ratings of the Republic of Ireland.

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

The principal applicable methodology is the Global Methodology for Rating Banks and Banking Organisations (June 2014). Other methodologies used include the DBRS Criteria: Support Assessment for Banks and Banking Organisations (January 2014) and DBRS Criteria: Rating Bank Capital Securities – Subordinated, Hybrid, Preferred & Contingent Capital Securities (February 2015). The rating methodologies and criteria used in the analysis of this transaction can be found at: http://www.dbrs.com/about/methodologies.

The sources of information used for this rating include DBRS ratings of the Republic of Ireland. DBRS considers the information available to it for the purposes of providing this rating was of satisfactory quality.

DBRS does not audit the information it receives in connection with the rating process, and it does not and cannot independently verify that information in every instance.

Generally, the conditions that lead to the assignment of a Negative or Positive Trend are resolved within a twelve month period. DBRS’s outlooks and ratings are under regular surveillance.

For further information on DBRS historic default rates published by the European Securities and Markets Administration (“ESMA”) in a central repository, see:
http://cerep.esma.europa.eu/cerep-web/statistics/defaults.xhtml.

Ratings assigned by DBRS Ratings Limited are subject to EU regulations only.

Lead Analyst: Ross Abercromby
Rating Committee Chair: William Schwartz
Initial Rating Date: September 6, 2005
Most Recent Rating Update: September 30, 2014

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For additional information on this rating, please refer to the linking document located at: http://www.dbrs.com/research/236983/banks-and-banking-organisations-linking-document.pdf

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