DBRS Morningstar Upgrades and Withdraws Most of SunTrust’s Ratings Following Merger with Truist

DBRS, Inc. (DBRS Morningstar) has taken several rating actions following the completion of Truist Financial Corporation’s (Truist) acquisition of SunTrust Banks, Inc. (SunTrust). Specifically, SunTrust and its banking subsidiary, SunTrust Bank have ceased to exist as legal entities. As such, DBRS Morningstar upgraded and equalized the ratings of their debt with those of Truist and Truist Bank, respectively, and subsequently withdrew these ratings. Additionally, and following their assumption by Truist, DBRS Morningstar upgraded SunTrust’s rated trust preferred issuances to ‘A’ from A (low) with a Positive trend. This includes SunTrust Capital I, SunTrust Capital III and National Commerce Capital Trust I. These ratings had been placed Under Review with Positive Implications on February 7, 2019, following the announcement of a merger of equals (MOE) between BB&T Corporation (BB&T) and SunTrust.

Notes:
All figures are in U.S. dollars unless otherwise noted.

The principal methodology is the Global Methodology for Rating Banks and Banking Organisations (June 2019), which can be found on our website under Methodologies & Criteria.

The primary sources of information used for this rating include Company Documents. DBRS Morningstar considers the information available to it for the purposes of providing this rating was of satisfactory quality.

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

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