Fitch downgrades rating of five Romanian banks

On Monday morning, Fitch rating agency removed Romania from the investment grade category, by downgrading it by two notches of long term foreign currency IDR from ‘BBB’ to ‘BB+’.

Romania’s country ceiling was downgraded from ‘A-‘ to ‘BBB’.

Following rating action taken on Romania, Fitch cut the long-term foreign currency issuer default rating and support rating for five banks in Romania, the decision being driven by institutional support from their respective foreign parents and by the fact that they are constrained by Romania’s ‘BBB’ country ceiling.

The country ceiling limits the extent to which potential support from the banks’ foreign parents can be factored into their issuer default ratings and support ratings, reads the press release issued by the rating agency.

Fitch downgraded from ‘A-‘ to ‘BBB’ the for long-term foreign currency issuer default rating to ‘BBB’ from ‘A-‘ , from ‘A-‘ to ‘BBB’ the long-term local currency issuer default rating, both with negative outlook and the short term foreign currency issuer default rating was downgraded to ‘F3’ from ‘F2’.

Fitch affirmed individual rating ‘C/D’ of BCR and downgraded support rating from ‘1’ to ‘2’.

Fitch has also downgraded from ‘A-‘ to ‘BBB’ long term foreign currency issuer default rating, and short term foreign currency issuer default rating from ‘F2’ to ‘F3’ for BRD-Groupe Societe Generale, Bancpost and Unicredit Tiriac Bank.

The rating agency cut support rating from ‘1’ to ‘2’ for the aforementioned banks and affirmed individual rating of ‘D’ for UniCredit Tiriac Bank.

Translated by Camelia Oancea