DBRS Assigns Preferred Stock Rating of BB (high), Stable Trend to NYCB

DBRS, Inc. (DBRS) has today assigned a rating of BB (high) with a Stable trend to New York Community Bancorp’s (NYCB or the Company) preferred stock. The rating is applicable to the recently announced $500 million of Fixed-to-Floating Rate Perpetual Non-Cumulative Preferred Stock, Series A issuance. The ratings are positioned three notches below NYCB’s Issuer & Senior Debt rating of BBB (high), which also carries a Stable trend. This notching is consistent with DBRS’s base notching policy for preferred shares issued for BBB (high) rated entities.

NYCB expects to use the net proceeds from the sale of the preferred stock for general corporate purposes.

RATING DRIVERS
Sustained levels of better than peer earnings generation, supported by a higher component of fee revenues, and a lower level of wholesale funding reliance could result in upward rating pressure. Conversely, a sustained deterioration in asset quality or an increase in lending risk appetite could pressure ratings. A poorly integrated acquisition or a significant acquisition that results in the Company entering a non-familiar business line could result in downward rating pressure.

Notes:
All figures are in USD unless otherwise noted.

The applicable methodologies are Global Methodology for Rating Banks and Banking Organisations (July 2016), DBRS Criteria – Support Assessments for Banks and Banking Organisations (March 2016) and DBRS Criteria: Rating Bank Capital Securities – Subordinated, Hybrid, Preferred & Contingent Capital Securities (February 2017), which can be found on our website under Methodologies.

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.

Lead Analyst: John Mackerey, Vice President
Rating Committee Chair: William Schwartz, Senior Vice President
Initial Rating Date: 13 October 2006
Most Recent Rating Update: 21 December 2016

The rated entity or its related entities did participate in the rating process. DBRS had access to the accounts and other relevant internal documents of the rated entity or its related entities.