DBRS Assigns New Ratings to Citibank Europe plc Following Merger with Citibank International Ltd

DBRS, Inc. (DBRS) has today assigned new ratings to Citibank Europe plc (CEP), including a Deposits & Senior Debt rating of “A” and a Short-Term Instruments rating of R-1 (low). All ratings have a Positive trend. CEP is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Citibank, N.A.

At the same time, DBRS has withdrawn the ratings of Citibank International Limited (CIL), including its Deposits & Senior Debt rating of “A” and Short-Term Instruments rating of R-1 (low). This follows the merger of CIL into CEP as part of an initiative by Citigroup Inc. to simplify its group structure and streamline business operations. The merger was effective on January 1, 2016, on which date all of CIL’s assets and liabilities were transferred to CEP and CIL ceased to exist.

CEP is highly integrated with Citibank, N.A. and holds Citi’s single European Union passport to operate in 21 countries. CEP provides corporate banking, private banking and treasury, trade and securities services to institutional clients. DBRS has assigned a SA1 support assessment to CEP, indicating strong and predictable support from the Parent. CEP’s rating will generally move in tandem with Citibank, N.A.’s long-term debt ratings.

DBRS’s ratings of Citigroup Inc. (Citigroup) are unaffected by this action. DBRS rates Citigroup’s Issuer & Senior Debt at A (low) with a Positive trend and Short-Term Instruments at R-1 (low) with a Stable trend.

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 (December 2015). Other applicable methodologies include the DBRS Criteria – Support Assessments for Banks and Banking Organisations (December 2015) and DBRS Criteria: DBRS Criteria: Rating Bank Capital Securities – Subordinated, Hybrid, Preferred & Contingent Capital Securities (February 2015).

The primary sources of information used for this rating include company documents 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: Lisa Kwasnowski
Rating Committee Chair: Roger Lister
Initial Rating Date: 24 July 2001
Most Recent Rating Update: 19 March 2015

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