BPER Banca: Fitch upgrades rating to "BBB-" Investment grade

BPER Banca informs that Fitch Ratings has today upgraded the company’s ratings. In particular, the agency has upgraded BPER Banca’s Long-Term Issuer Default Rating (IDR) to ‘BBB-’ from ‘BB+’ and Viability Rating (VR) to ‘bbb-’ from ‘bb+’. The outlook was changed to stable from positive.

The upgrade reflects BPER’s major achievements in the derisking process, resulting in a significant improvement in asset quality with the impaired loans ratio down to just above 3% at end-2022 to levels closer to international averages.

The rating action additionally reflects the Bank’s adequate capital position and the profitability prospects arising from the recent acquisitions of Intesa Sanpaolo’s carve-out and Banca Carige.