DBRS Assigns Issuer Ratings to 43 European Banking Groups

DBRS Ratings Limited and DBRS Inc (collectively DBRS) have today assigned Issuer Ratings to 43 banking groups and various banking subsidiaries and affiliated entities in its European bank rating universe where they had not been assigned previously. The Issuer Ratings are assigned based on a bank’s fundamentals that are reflected in its Intrinsic Assessment and are typically at the same level as the Senior Debt ratings of the bank and also carry the same trend (see the rating table at the end of this press release for more details).

The Issuer Rating assigned to Caixa Geral de Depositos S.A. is Under Review with Negative Implications, and the Issuer Rating assigned to Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena SpA is Under Review with Developing Implications, in line with the existing review of the senior ratings of those banks.

For a further 9 banking groups (Lloyds Banking Group plc, Landesbank Berlin AG, Sparkassen-Finanzgruppe, Abanca Corporación Bancaria S.A., Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria, S.A., Caja Rural de Granada, Liberbank, S.A., ABN AMRO Group N.V. and ING Bank N.V.) DBRS has removed the Issuer Rating nomenclature from the Senior Rating and assigned it as an individual rating.

The other ratings of the banks are unaffected by this action.

RATING DRIVERS
The Issuer Ratings are assigned based on a bank’s fundamentals that are reflected in its Intrinsic Assessment and are typically at the same level as the Senior Debt ratings of the bank. As a result the Issuer Ratings will move in line with the Senior Debt ratings and the Intrinsic Assessments of the individual banks.

Notes:
The principal applicable methodology is the Global Methodology for Rating Banks and Banking Organisations (July 2016). Other applicable methodologies include the DBRS Criteria: Support Assessments for Banks and Banking Organisations (March 2016), DBRS Criteria: Rating Bank Capital Securities – Subordinated, Hybrid, Preferred & Contingent Capital Securities (February 2017), DBRS Criteria: Guarantees and Other Forms of Support (February 2017), and DBRS Critical Obligations Rating Criteria (February 2017). These can be found can be found at: http://www.dbrs.com/about/methodologies

The sources of information used for this rating include SNL Financial and company documents. DBRS considers the information available to it for the purposes of providing this rating to be 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.

Certain ratings in this action are under review. Generally, the conditions that lead to the assignment of reviews are resolved within a 90 day period. DBRS reviews and ratings are under regular surveillance.

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

For full rating committee disclosures see: http://www.dbrs.com/research/306792

Information regarding DBRS ratings, including definitions, policies and methodologies, is available on www.dbrs.com.